AUS The Difference
by ShadowMoonSedai
Summary: Sarah is a Weapon, a fighter... but when she loses her sister and best friends to an accident, nothing she has been taught will prepare her for what she must to get them back.
1. Prologue Worlds Apart

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Animorphs Alternate Universe Series

Book 1: The Difference

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Prologue- Worlds Apart

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(Sarah)

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"Ahhh!" _thud._ "Alay!" No sympathy. She's laughing too hard. Along with her Groupies. Stupid Casters.

My name is Sarah. Plain and simple. Nothing complicated, a good Earth name. But that is all I can tell you about me. Not that I have a last name - Weapons trainees are numbers, not people - but if I did, I still could not tell you. I can tell you about me, though, who I am and what I am like. I am average height, average brown hair color, average blue eyes. At least, in my world that is average. For a Weapon, that is pretty damn average. But that is beside the point. I enjoy writing as a hobby, hanging out on the net and also reading. I am just... average. Well, not entirely, but... Average.

Speaking of Alay, she was still laughing, the little cheater. See, she is a Weapon trainee too (although I am actually a Cross) and fights dirty. Really dirty. She was raised in Old New York, before Visser One had it destroyed, then came to the Academy when she was about twelve - same year as me. But while I was trained in the long range weapons of my home - staves, glaives, halberds - she was trained in street hand to hand combat - vicious, deadly, merciless. Street orphans do not care who they are fighting, they just fight to win. But Alay and I are actually really good friends, though, in all honesty, sometimes she really annoys me.

I should explain a few things...

**Weapon - **Creature trained in all forms of fighting. Used as soldiers for the human Yeerk army. 9 times out of ten, are free of being controlled. (Alay and I are fifth years - almost done)

**Caster - **Creature capable of harnessing the energies of the elements, Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. It takes a lot longer to train as a Caster then as a Weapon, mostly because they come into their power later, while Weapons have to start training young.

**Cross** - (That is me!) People who are trained in both. I have a small amount of Caster strength in me, barely enough to do anything useful, so I train as a Weapon as my sister, Emily, trains as a Caster. I have taught her a little about fighting, enough to keep her alive in a tight spot, so technically she is a Cross too.  
That should be of assistance. The Weapon-Caster-Cross system has been in use for a really long time, centuries even, since the first Caster made herself known way back when. We train hard from a young age and protect the people of the world who live their lives outside of the Academies. There are, in total, seven Academies for the training of Weapons and Casters. We attend the New World Academy in Sun City, in the United States of America, the oldest school of the seven. We live on campus, train on campus, and enjoy all the perks of being grunts to the some of the most difficult people to walk the planet. We train on Earth time, twenty-four hour days broken down into a sixteen-hour training day that has half hour breaks every three hours to eat and cool down. The other eight are sleeping, and, occasionally, we do actually sleep the whole eight hour span, but most of the time we sleep five to six, using the left over time to be with our friends and to get something more substantial to eat then the healthy crap they feed us. Most of the other students do the same, getting good food at night, and we basically hang out and be... teenagers. It is funny, really, how little life has changed since the Yeerks took over. Some laws are changed, and Hork-Bajir and other things we had not seen before are all over the place now, but for the most part, for kids my age, it has not changed. I can imagine life is very different for Controllers and their families but... not for me. Given, I was not born yet, so I do not know how life was for older people before then, but it has not been too grandly difficult for me.  
"Yay Alay!!" Beh. Alay's _nec'rin_ groupies, cheering on the cheater. All Casters, all female, all _nec'rin_ - that is what my people call men and women who like people of the same sex - and _all_ disturbingly cheerful and adoring of _mi itala_.

"Had enough?" Alay had finally gained a breath between her laughing and came to help me to my feet. Well, help me _after_ she stood over me gloating. "Come on, Sarah. That's the second time I've used that move this week. I would think you have it covered by now."

"Bite me, 'lay," I forced out mock smile, getting to my feet of my own will. "You know you fight dirty. How can I even guess what you will do?"

"Oh, I dunno, because you and I practically think on the same wave length by now?" I laughed and picked up the practice sword from where it had landed after Alay's little knockdown.

"Not quite so much, _itala nec'rin._ For one thing, _my_ groupies are not drooling over me in my training clothes." Not that I have groupies... guys are not as weird as girls... But Alay only smirked evilly and the pair of daggers she had pulled on me as a surprise attack both disappeared again.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. You happen to have quite a few admirers among the Casters." I rolled my eyes. Casters always ogled Weapons, it was pretty well the way of the Academy, but that was because in us they had protectors and guardians from when they left the school and struck it out in the world. And for Weapons, we had a way to travel unscathed and something to do with our lives by protecting the Casters. Unfortunately for the group ogling Alay and I, we were pretty well chosen. Emily, my twin sister, needed me from the first day and I need her as much, and Alay and Sadie were best friends before they even came to Academy, so they are paired off as well. But Casters do not easily take "no" for answer, and thus, every time Alay and I grappled out of a class situation, we were watched.

"First of all, _itala_, I do not _like_ girls like you do." I dropped the practice sword on the pile by the door as Alay waved good bye to her faithful followers, and we left the practice room. It was actually one of those eight hour spans when we were supposed to be sleeping, but Sadie and Emily were holed up in _our_ room, working a joint Cast of something or other. All I knew was that I had had dinner - pizza with Alay and Laurel down at Gino's - and then when Laurel went off to bed, Alay and I went to have a practice fight. And damn her, I had been doing good until that little stunt with the daggers.

"I know, I know. You play for the other team." I laughed as she paused at a beverage vending machine and raised an eyebrow. "You know, would it kill them to put something in these things that isn't good for us?"

"No, but they think it would kill us." I leaned against the wall and raked my fingers through my hair, separating the sweat soaked clumps into smaller sweat soaked clumps. I closed my eyes and took a slow breath to calm my nerves and slow down my circulation. The translator chip that the Council of Eleven had had installed in the part of my brain that controlled language shut it self down, assuming, in its useless little microchip brain, that I had died. It shut down, allowing me to talk freely in my own language. _"Itala, hei na Animarpha?_" Alay shook her head, causing the braided, blonde section of her hair to swing about her head.

"Jess hasn't been able to find the next ones. And she's backing off a little on the searching - Polizei have been asking questions."

"_Mei?!"_

"Yeah... I know." I frowned and chewed my lip in thought. This was not good...

When the Yeerks arrived, they took over about half of the population - no one, supposedly, was a Controller. Instead, all of the hosts were taken over of their own free will. Again, supposedly. There are some of the free humans who know that there are Controllers. One of these humans wrote a series, based on a team of fictional people who fought a Yeerk invasion with the aid of Andalites. The Council of Eleven banned these books, but could not destroy them. They replaced the books with a version where a group of free humans and Collaborators who fought an invasion of Andalites. Completely opposite versions, similiar plots. The Council of Eleven's version only helps to spread the hatred of Andalites that the Yeerks brought with them, and, with so few Andalites left in the universe, there is no opportunity for anyone to meet the hands on thing. I love Animorphs, both series, so does Alay, and while we can get the latter easily enough, the former is much harder to obtain.

"_Shanka,"_ I spat and rubbed my forehead. A few quick, shallow breaths, and the translator clicked back on. Stupid technology, translator chips. But it allowed for non-English speaking people, such as myself, to easily converse and understand other people. Without it, I could easily understand English, but not speak it. "Did you find something you like yet?" She shook her head and sighed.

"No... it's all too healthy for my liking. Come on. Let's go kick those witch girls out of our room."

"Technically, 'lay, it is their room too," I commented. She shrugged.

"They locked us out. We have a right to do the same. Let them sleep on the benches this time." I gave a small smile and chuckled. Alay was Alay and would be that way for a long time...


	2. Ch 1 Accidental Casting

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Animorphs Alternate Universe Series

The Difference

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Chapter 1 - Accidental Casting

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(Sarah)

"No no no, see, Fire and Air can make fireballs, we know this, but Water and Air don't make water balls, just like Earth and Air don't make Earth balls."

"No, because Earth and Air make a dust storm. And Water and Air make clouds, fog, and/or ice, depending on the ratio."

"Exactly. And Fire and Water can't combine, because they're opposite elements. But everything else can. So if we combine Earth, Air, and Fire..."

It makes no sense to me. It never has. Casters have a language all their own. Unfortunately, that language was keeping me awake. It was enough to make wish I were an only child.

"Emmm," I groaned, hurling a pillow at her. "Shut the 'ell up!"

"Oh, bite me, mortal," she snapped good-naturedly as she tossed the pillow back from her spot on the floor. The dorms in the academy are not very big, so they took up the little floor space that was left over after two bunk beds and two sets thin wardrobes. "It is not my fault you need sleep."

"No, but it will be your fault when I have to suffocate you to actually get some!"

"Ha! I would like to see you try!" It was tempting, it really was, with an open offer like that, but annoying habits aside, I love my sister - and I was just too damn tired. I had to try another ploy.

"_Itelan_," I whined, close enough to dead for my Translator chip to give up. "_Hei na kai lan? Vercha.... mer ni seh'!_"

"Ahhh... I can not argue that." She gave me one of her customary sister smiles and closed the book that had been across her knees. "Let us call it a night, Sadie." Sadie gave her a blank look, but closed the book and slid it under her bunk anyway. "She called me heartless, _itala._ I can not argue that."

"I did _not_ call her heartless!" I retorted. "I asked her if she _had_ a heart and apparently she does."

"_Veraha, itelan._" Emily slid the book under our bunk and clambered up the latter do the top as Sadie practically fell into the bottom bunk. She was fast asleep before her head hit the pillow and despite my present exhaustion, I giggled as Emily did the same above me. "These Southerners are really the little milksops Father said they were." I had to bury my face in my pillow to hide my laugh and Emily leaned over the edge of the bunk to grin down at me. "_Mei gen, _huh?"

"_Jai,_" I agreed. "Trainer Bily had us working drills from lunch to dinner and from dinner till the end. I am going to have sore muscles tomorrow that I did not even know I could hurt." She chuckled.

"If it helps any, we are learning how to Cast heal. I will heal you in the morning." There was silence where I gave her a horrified look. Emily is not a morning person. For that matter, the word 'morning' was not in her vocabulary until we got to the Academy. She had never actually been up before noon, ever, in her life. Poor child about slept through her first week, until she got used to the schedule. Even now, I do not trust her Casting in the morning. Period.

"No, that is okay, _itelan_. I think I will suffer. Better to be painful in one piece then painful in many." She dropped her pillow on my face as I laughed at the indignant expression on her face.

"The both of you, _shut up!_" cried Alay from her bed. "Please please please, before I'm forced to get up and injure you!"

"Alay," groaned Sadie. "Yell quieter. You'll wake up the whole wing." She rolled onto her side and ultimately off the bed, landing with the muffled thud on the thick carpet. That was end of that, pretty much. Emily and I lost it completely, to the point we were almost suffocating ourselves on the pillows to quiet our laughs and when Alay finally figured out what had happened, she had to do the same. Sadie merely shot me a dirty look and pulled her blanket off the bed before curling up the floor to go back to sleep. When the laughter finally died, I handed Emily's pillow back to her and grinned.

"_Sehar desha, itelan."_

"Sehar desha," she whispered back with small smile.

~*~  
"No, Sarah, _dodge!_ Don't block the hit - let him lose his balance when he fails to make it!" Matt came at me again, practice sword in hand, me with no weapon to fight back with. Drilling really, completely, bites. "Dodge, damn it!" The sword came from the left in a straight arc, about the height of my waist, a good blow meant to cut open the stomach. Of course Matt would try a killing blow straight off the bat!

_Dodge, she says, when Matt is the fastest Weapon in our class and I am not even half his speed._ I leapt back anyway, and felt the breeze of the blade as it passed inches from my front. Before I could gather my wits, he was coming at me again, then time from higher up. I ducked, barely, and felt the breath leave my lungs as he landed a kick in my stomach. _Damn..._

"Sarah, how many times have I told you to watch all the limbs and extremities when dodging?" I wanted to say something _really_ not nice as a retort, but a lack of air held that back. Matt knelt down and gently helped me to my feet, abandoning the practice sword to put a supporting arm around my waist. Breathing took a great deal of effort and lack of oxygen was making my limbs weak. Thank the Four Gods for Matt... despite the fact it was _his_ fault in the first place. "Now," said Trainer Rosette, with the air of superiority that only a Weapon Trainer can have. "Tell me what you did wrong."

"Got distracted," I managed to wheeze out. "Watched sword, not Matt." There. Now I could collapse like the good little injured child I was. Well, not collapse completely, more like fall into Matt, who braced himself and held me up.

"Hells, you hit her good." In the distant fuzz that was the world was becoming, I heard the sweet drone of the bell. Thank you, Gods, it was time to stop drilling and go take my weekly Casting class. It was a place they stuck us with a tiny amount of ability who were training as Weapons. And to add insult to injury, Emily had started to teach it as part of her requirements. So my sister, the Academy's little prodigy, was teaching me, who had absolutely no skill period. Oh yeah. Nice and fun. But it was not drilling, so that made up for something, at least.

"Come on," said Matt. "I'll take you to First Aid before your class. You want to be fully conscious when Em gives you a dressing down for getting distracted again." I nodded weakly and limped beside him, feeling every muscle and my lungs screaming for a proper dose of air. He scooped up our duffel bags and slung them over his free shoulder. You have to love Matt. He always thinks of everything. So gentle and kind and sweet and - air! Finally, a full breath of air to clear the fog from my brain. "Better?" asked Matt as we left the classroom. Two girls who were in the class below us passed us and went puppy-eyed at the sight of Matt. Why girls do that I will never know. He is Matt. How does that make him worthy of being sought after?

"Yes," I sighed. "Much-"

"Matt! Sarah!" Laurel was suddenly there, a whirlwind of Caster trainee white and black, brunette curls a messy wave across her face and shoulders. She looked greatly despaired.. "Matt, hurry, you need to find Caster Hannah. There was an accident and Sadie and Emily..." She trailed off with a pained look to match my confusion. Emily and Sadie? "We don't know what happened, Sarah. They were mock dueling, trying out some new combos, when the Casts hit and... All we know is it formed some kind of - of rip or something and they both got sucked in. Caster Joseph told everyone to stay back but Alay, she was passing on the way to lunch, went after them... We need Caster Hannah."

"Matt, go find the Caster." My voice sounded distant. I did not know I had talked out loud. My only thought was... It was not possible... Emily, Alay, Sadie... 

"Sarah, what about you?" I didn't answer him, not trusting my voice to keep my pain silent. I took my bag from his shoulder and slipped it across mine. What I had in there would have to be enough... a set of Teslahani civilian clothing, another set of training clothes, various small weapons, Alay's dagger that she had left in the dorm, various other things. No food, but I would have to do without. There was no time to get anything else. I could feel that, the feeling like sand slipping through my fingers, and if I waited longer... it would all run out. "Wait a minute..." Trust Matt to figure it out. I meant to follow them, to bring them back. How, I did not know... "You can't, Sarah! We don't know what it is!"

"It is taken my sister and my _italai_. I do not care what it is, so long as it gives them back." I had a slight idea of what it what it was - a legend, a myth of the Caster, from a time when there was a great power to go around, and I could see the same guess in Laurel's eyes. But it could never be duplicated, it was all an accident, and unless Sadie and Emily knew what they had done, going through would mean not coming back. But I would not leave all that I held dear stranded... "Laurel, Caster Hannah will know exactly what it is and she will tell you the whole truth. Make sure all of our stuff goes back home - Alay's stuff with mine. She does not have any family to return things too..." I trailed off at the flash of pain in Laurel's violet eyes, but she gave me, chewing her lip to hold back the tears. She was only a child still, in her second year, our little sister... but Matt would protect her, as he always had. He would keep her safe when we could not. "I am sorry, _itala_..." She nodded tearfully and I took her in my arms to give her what I hoped was a reassuring hug. Reassuring for whom, I did not know. "It will be all right, _lina itala_. _Wi ria gewmani, jaia?_"

"I should've tried to keep them here," she sobbed into my shoulder. "We wouldn't have to lose all of you."

"Hey hey hey! Don't talk like that." Matt pulled her from me and she cried in his arms now instead of mine. Her protector, her Matthew, but the look of frustration he gave me was solely for me. "She's not going. They'll send the Weapons after them, and full Casters. This isn't your battle, Sarah." Even as he said, I knew he knew that his attempts were in vain. He was _mi atala, _my brother of heart, and he knew that I was going, no matter what. "Come back in one piece, will you?" he said quietly. I gave a nod.

"We will sure as the Five Hells try, _atala_," I answered with my best attempt at a smile. "_Hedashan jei, atala, hedashan._"

"Don't make promises," he murmured, holding Laurel tighter. "You don't know-"

"But I do, _atala,_ I do." I did not, I really had no clue, but sometimes having a promise to keep you going is what makes a journey worthwhile. "_Hedashan jei._" I smiled again, this time less forced and somewhat genuine, and left them to find Caster Hannah. She would know... she knew it all about the history of the Academy. And Emily was her protege, so Emily would know almost as much as she did. It had been Emily that had told me about the... thing I suspected had sucked her in. I still was not sure it was what I thought it was.

But when I walked into the almost-empty classroom, even I knew what it was. The swirling whirlwind of all four elements passed over and pressed against my skin like a gentle breeze, but I was only at the edge of it. Closer towards the center of the storm, towards the Transgate, it would be like walking through a tornado. Oh, Four Gods, a _Transgate_. Capable of transporting objects miles at a time, even leagues.

And it had my sister and friends.

Surrounding it were three Weapon Trainers and Caster Trainer Aaron, the teacher who had been present at the duel. And by his pale face and trembling, he felt the power more then I did and knew more then I did what it was. The three Trainers were unaffected, being full blooded Weapons with no Caster in them at all, but they were guarded and ready for whatever came out of the Transgate. Not for someone else going in, because no one was that stupid and foolish. My Caster was in there, in that thing that lead to who knew where. That was a good excuse as any to go rushing foolishly into an uncontrolled Transgate.

I hoped so anyway.

_Just run and do not stop,_ I told myself. _They are watching the giant hole in the middle of the room, not you. _And it was a giant hole, as tall as I was, and as tall as it was wide. But the size changed at irregular intervals, sometimes taller, sometimes wider, sometimes no bigger then my hand, just constantly changing and shifting. I had to time it right so as not to miss it. _Just run..._

_Yes, just keep running,_ whispered a dark voice in my mind as I took a step forward. _Never stop or you will fail and failure is not an option. Keep running, little Seharenae, and nothing will ever catch you..._ I gave my head a little shake and ignored the voice beyond that. Adrenaline did strange things to a person's mind and I had plenty of that pumping through my system at the moment. The pounding of my heart soon drowned out the voice that was repeating its little speech over and over like a mantra. _Run or you will fail..._ No, I would not fail. Never fail. I was a Weapon and Weapons never failed... never.

I hit the Transgate at a full run, amongst the yells of my Trainers, telling me to stop, trying to stop me, but they could no and I would not. It was over before it began. I hit a small resistance, like running into a wall of water that gave under my weight. And then I was falling...   
  
  



	3. Ch 2 Who

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The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series

The Difference

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Chapter 2 - Who

(_Sarah)_

_Is this what you want... to continue this quest?_

Yes.

You're putting you're life into a dangerous situation you know nothing about.

So what?

You would risk everything you could have just for them?

You do not understand... they are everything I have. I am nothing without my sister, just a lost half with no one to turn to. And without Alay and Sadie, I am less then that half.

... I understand. More then you will ever know.

There was nothing but darkness around me, an empty abyss devoid of everything but me. I have never felt loneliness like I did when I was trapped in that void. There has always been someone I could turn to, Emily or Alay or Sadie or later on, others who meant as much to me. But floating in that space of pure black, I was utterly and totally alone, cut off even from the bond that tied me to my sister.

Then I stopped floating, stopped moving left and right, back and forth, and simply moved down, falling, feeling the strange sensation of ground rushing up to meet me and yet, having no desire to turn my head and see it. Without anyone to care for, I was as numb and blank as the world around me. But then when that pseudo-ground finally met my vague and hollow body, every cold corner was replaced by a sharp, burning pain. It felt like someone was taking me apart and rebuilding me. Not spared in the least from this blinding hurt was my head, which felt like it was being picked apart and memories were being plucked from my head. Only... they were still there. Times with Emily, before the Academy, with my father in Sehar and Soriander, practice battles, lessons in the Academy with Alay and the others... they were there, but they were not. I would have been greatly disturbed, except for the pain that distracted me.

And then, it was over as soon as it began. All I felt was an odd ache here or there, a ghost pain that reminded me of what had been done, even though I had no idea what I had gone through. The darkness swallowed me up and I was gone again...

~*~

A soft cacophony of voices wrapped around me and dispelled the thick veil of fog around my mind, though my mind felt still partially disconnected from the rest of me. I was aware that my body was still, laying on a soft, yet scratchy surface that was irritating my back through my shirt. The voices slowly untangled themselves and I could make out four voices that seemed to be having a truncated conversation... about me.

"Erek brought her here this morning," said one voice, female, quietly. "He said he found her, unconscious, outside his front door this morning."

"She must have tried to get into that entrance again... she never listens to anything." Male, sounded slightly peeved... all right, more then slightly. He sounded down right pissed. Who ever they were talking about had obviously done something... but what?

"Whatever injuries she had, she obviously morphed off," said another voice, male as well. "She's probably just sleeping right now. I think we should let her sleep and ream her out when she wakes out." Ream out who for what? What exactly had been done? From that matter, where in the five hells was _I_? And why did my back itch so much?!

In the general scope of things, I realize that my itching back was the least of my worries, but at that point in time, it was the most irritating thing overall. I shifted slowly, attempting to move without making a noise, but then, stealth was never my best skill.

Sarah? came a question in my mind. Are you awake?

"Yes..." I answered without thinking, about a number of things, actually. "Wait a minute... how do you know my name?" It never occurred to me that I was hearing voices in my head... at least, not at first. I sat up slowly on the stack of hay where I was laying (hay. I hate hay) and looked around, taking everything in instantly. That was natural Weapon instinct, to see everything in one glance, and it came in handy in unfamiliar places, like where I was right now. A large barn, with the usual barn things, several cages with injured animals that were as silent as the four humans who watched me with vaguely stunned looks. And then, something else what was not human.

I cannot exactly explain my initial reaction to the Andalite. Being raised in a Yeerk run society, we were trained to subconsciously view Andalites as the enemy. That was why they were the universal bad guys in the second set of Animorphs books... any enemy of the Yeerks was an enemy to the free world. But actually seeing one close up, I had an odd mix of hate and confusion that left me with only one thing to say.

"_Damn_." One of the humans directed his eyes above me, to the rafters.

"Tobias, what's wrong? Why isn't she speaking English?"

I don't know... she understands it fine, or at least partially... maybe she has a concussion. Sarah. The next moment was the scariest and weirdest moment in all of my life. The voice in my head asked me a very simple question _in my own language_ and all I could do was sit there, gaping like a fish. How... who... I got a very frightening chill down my spine and it forced me to my feet. Anger flooded over the fear, fueled by a score of questions that intertwined and danced inside my skull.

"Who in the five hells are you?!" I yelled. "Get out of my head and show yourself!!" Where was I? Had I been captured? Where were the others, for that matter. "What have you done with my sister?! Where is she?! Tell me!"

"Well, I think that's enough reason to think she's lost her mind," quipped one of the humans on the ground. "Tobias, _what_ is she ranting about?"

I think we have a definite concussion, said the voice, "Tobias". She doesn't know where she is or who I am and she wants to know where her sister is. Sarah, just calm down and get a grip.

"I hate to say it, but what if the Yeerks got to her?" asked one of the females. "Something's definitely wrong."

"Yeerk?" I repeated, feeling the anger double and triple. Who were these people, to think me one of those slugs?! "I am _not_ a Controller, damn it!"

She says she's not, repeated the voice. Damn it, why did it keep repeating everything I said? How hard was it for these people to understand me?

Wait...

Oh hells.

The chip was fried... the Transgate had fried the stupid translator chip! They could not understand me, because, without the chip, everything I said was my own tongue. But I could understand them because the translator _had_ changed every spoken thing into English. Oh, just perfect. Captured by people who could not understand me.

"All right," I said slowly, in what little English I knew I could speak without the chip. Alay had taught me some, when I had taught her Teslahani. I knew enough to get me out of a tight spot, but I had had no desire to learn everything. "Let us start over. Where am I and who are you?" They shared a look, the humans and Andalite, then one of the boys nodded to something I had not heard.

"Sarah, I'm Jake, remember?" he said calmly. "And Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax?" He indicated each person in turn, but I hardly heard him past Cassie's name... oh, Four Gods, it was not possible. Names I knew like the back of my hand, but fictional people, made up characters in a book... It just was not possible. But here they were, in the flesh...

I had not just crossed across miles and distances in _my_ world, I had crossed into a whole _different _ world!


	4. Ch 3 Freelancer

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Yes... Sarah with English skills. Mostly. 

The Difference

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Chapter 3

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Freelancer

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(Marco)  


"This is not happening. _Ia nin caraona le nendehsha._"

My name is Marco, last name not applicable. See, a lot of people would like to get their hands on me, so they could shove a parasite into my head and take over my body. Why, you may ask? While my amazing natural charm and kick ass wit would cause anyone to want to be Mighty Marco, there's a different reason. See, right now, the Earth is under invasion from these aliens called Yeerks, parasites, like I said. But don't go calling the government or anything - most of them are already infested. No, your only hope lies in us - six human kids and one other alien, an Andalite (think blue centaur with lots of fingers, too many eyes and no mouth). My buddy Jake, sort of leader, his girl Cassie, his cousin Rachel, Rachel's bird-boyfriend Tobias, Sarah Don't-get-me-started-on-her, Ax the Andalite, and me, Mr. Cool.

Unfortunately, things are little weirder then that. Sarah, our little freelancer, was acting stranger then usual. She was there with us the night we got the morphing power, which is what we use to fight the Yeerks, but after that, she wasn't with us so much. We're not sure why, but she isolates herself from us, fights on her own more often then with the team, takes stupid risks and yet, is still alive to grace us with her cynical presence.

Except for this given moment in time, when she seemed more confused and disoriented then anything. Tobias asked her something in her own language and she waved it away before burying her face in her hands.

"_Ia _nin_ caraona le nendehsha!_"

She says, and I quote, "I have not fallen into this hell", translated Tobias. Jake sighed and shook his head. It was hard to face the inevitable, really, that Sarah had lost her mind. She may not have fought with us, but she could be counted on to join in on missions or score a well-timed entrance just when we needed her help. Not that she ever came to meetings to know when and where missions were, but Tobias filled her in. He was her little confidant, the reason he could converse in her language and translate her ramblings. Jake, something's definitely wrong with her. You don't think she's... He trailed off and Jake shook his head.

"Any thing with her memories wouldn't be here. A Yeerk would have tried to fight its way out by now." He didn't add what we all thought - 'unless it was a really cunning Yeerk who would wait until we weren't looking to make an escape.' But against my better instincts, even I didn't think that and I was the paranoid one. Something was wrong, yes, but just with Sarah herself and no outside forces helping. 

Prince Jake, if I may make a suggestion. Ax shifted slightly on his back hooves. Sarah is obviously tired. Perhaps we can take this up later and let her rest. Then he added in private thought speak, Tobias and I will watch her here, but we cannot let her go home. No, that was a major bad idea. Sarah's parents were Controllers, the last people we wanted her to go to if she was one too. So Jake nodded.

"All right, we'll deal with it later. Sarah, stay here and get some rest. We'll meet back here at seven, all right?" He looked around at us and we nodded our agreement, even Rachel, who honestly didn't like Sarah at all and would have loved any reason to announce her a traitor and end it. But Sarah was still an Animorph and deserved the chance to prove her innocence.

As I followed Jake and the others out of the barn, I risked a glance back at Sarah. She was no longer standing, but curled up on the hay with her face buried in her arms on her knees. I could tell, even from this distance, that she was crying and that worried me more then ever. Sarah didn't cry, period, but now she was, for some reason none of us knew. 

"Jake-" I started, but he only nodded.

"I know, Marco, I know, but we have to assume the worst about this. We can't trust her not to be a Controller."

I'll stay, said Tobias. Even if she is Controlled, it's a bad idea to let her think she's alone. Besides, she may let something slip and I'll call Ax if she does.

I will be close by, said Ax with a nod. If she is Controlled.

"And I'll be just up at the house, so call me too," said Cassie. Rachel turned her head up to Tobias, who had flown out to a branch by the barn door. I could see the green-eyed monster very present on her face and she snarled quietly before stalking off. Rachel was jealous, incredible jealous, in fact, of Sarah's relationship with Tobias, even though Sarah had reassured her a thousand times over that her and Tobias strictly plutonic. For all the time those two spent together, Rachel had every right to be jealous, except for that fact that the only thing that came out of it was the fact Sarah and Tobias had someone who understood to talk to. Sarah was adopted and had never known her real family, same as Tobias, and with her foster parents as Controllers, what she needed was a brother to turn to. So she had Tobias and he had her and they both had Ax as a _shorm_ to talk to if and when they couldn't talk to the other. Small miracles do happen, people, and I had a feeling the only reason Sarah ever came to fight with us was so that she wouldn't have to see Ax or Tobias die.

I sighed before I morphed Osprey to fly home. What I wouldn't have given to have that kind of relationship with Sarah...  
  
_Whee. There's that. Short again._


	5. Ch 4 Shorm

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Chocolate milk and depressing chapters should not be mixed... well, it's supposed to be a depressing chapter. Semi depressing... it's slightly angsty, I think. It should be. We shall see. And since Tobias can speak the same language as Sarah, everything they say is in that language but translated. Fun, huh? And don't worry, Alay, Emily, and Sadie fans. They'll be back soon. I may get beaten up but... they'll be back soon.

The Difference

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Chapter 4  
**Shorm**

(Tobias)

I should have been prepared for it. She had warned me, after all, that things were going to go to hell... when you live in hell, you tend to disbelieve a warning that it's going to get worse. But seeing Sarah curled up and crying on the hay of Cassie's barn... it was hard to disregard what she had told me before.

_The day had been nice and calm - no Yeerks, nothing. Sarah had skipped last period to hike up to the colony of free Hork-Bajir. She had been there a few hours, then came back to my territory and waited in her usual tree, watching the sunset, until I joined her._

Long day? I asked as I landed on the branch next to her head. She chuckled.

"There's an essay I have for English that I don't think I'll be able to finish." She sighed and tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Ia len ge inda kerai."

It has to be done, itala, I told her. You know that. I preened a wing feather as she sighed again. So what's so hard about this essay, anyway? English teacher picking on you again because you don't speak it? A strange smile crossed her face as she leaned against the trunk of the tree.

"It's not the essay," she said. "It's time... it's catching up to me. I thought I had more but... things are going to change, Tobias, and whatever happens, you have to trust that... I'm me..." She trailed off with a sudden frown at the setting sun. "I never liked watching the sun set, atala. It seems so final..."

You've said that before, Sarah.

"Well, it's still as true now as it ever was..."

You want to talk about it? I landed on the rafter above her head and settled myself in to listen. Sarah never cried, but she didn't exactly hide her feelings, especially not from me or Ax. But when she lifted her head and looked up at me, she looked so incredibly... lost. Sarah, what is it?

"All I wanted was to get them and bring them home," she whispered, not even bothering to attempt English. "I wasn't supposed to lose them here... I don't know where they are. I can't even sense her anymore..."

Sense who? She had no idea had insane she sounded, but that seemed to be the problem. She didn't know that was she was saying made no sense. Who's gone, Sarah?

"Oh what does it matter," she said, straightening and stretching her legs out in front of her. She still trembled from unshed tears and her face was stained wet. "You think I'm insane - or worse, a Controller. And, honestly, you wouldn't understand. I don't even understand." She stretched her arms above her head and I caught a glimpse of a strange scar on the back of her wrist - when she shouldn't have had a mark. It was an odd cross shape surrounded by a circle. I knew that mark, faintly, from way at the beginning, but she had morphed it off that first night. Something was strange...

Sarah, where did you get that mark? With hawk's eyes, I saw her shiver before she brought her arm back down and held it too her chest.

"What mark?" she asked shakily. "I have no mark."

It's the scar Hannah gave you, isn't it? 

"Hannah?" she murmured, letting her arm fall to her lap. "Yes... it was Hannah. Hannah gave this to me... Tobi'as... where _am_ I?" It came out full of fear and her eyes echoed that tone. "... _who_ am I?"

You're Sarah, I answered slowly, watching her face with worry. You're one of us. An Animorph. I had known Sarah for a long time at that point, months, almost a year, and watching the shock cross her face was the strangest thing I had ever gone through with her. It was like... she hadn't known...

It's hard to define my relationship with Sarah - she's more of my sister then anything else, but sometimes, I wonder how much she really hides from me. She taught me her language as I taught her mine, because she knew hardly any English, though she said she had at one point in time, and through that, we had learned about each other. We spent hours in that certain tree in my territory, discussing everything from her school assignments - she goes to school with the others - to the difference between _her_ religion that worshipped four Gods and the religions that believed in fewer or more. I knew she was from a foreign place but... when I really thought about it, I had never learned where, nor had I learned what had happened to her parents to make her an orphan. I knew that she had come to our city by way of being adopted, back before the Yeerks were even on Earth, back when I was still human... School and people had made me nervous... everyone seemed to know everyone and no one seemed to know me. But she was there from the first day just... her. Someone to talk to and someone to be my friend... and when I became a _nothlit,_ she was the proverbial shoulder to cry on, so to speak. And since I couldn't cry, she talked me through depression and brought me food when I decided starving to death was better the following the instinct of the hawk and hunting myself. Sarah was... herself and so much else. Apparently more then even I had known...

"A-Animorph?" she repeated with wide eyes. "Me? A... morpher?"

Ax, I think you have better come back in here, I said in private thought speak as Sarah worked through what appeared to be new information to her. And Cassie, you too, unless you really can't get away without raising a scene.

_All right_, came her human to morph thought speak as Ax trotted in from just outside the door. Sarah stood as he entered and watched him closely, obviously trying to figure out just how dangerous he could be. I think that was really the last straw that had held up my belief that this Sarah was the Sarah we had known - the Sarah we had known would never have been afraid of Ax in the slightest and she never would have looked him over, sizing him up as enemy or ally the way this Sarah was. And from my vantage point, I could see other things about her that weren't the same - the way she held herself, proud and tall, the way her blue eyes were filled with so many emotions, yet seemed so blank unless you knew what to look for, and then, on top of that, the thin scars that were visible just above the back of her collar. Add that to the mark on her wrist and it wasn't hard to figure out that this girl had never morphed in her life.

"I think," she said in slow, deliberate English. "That there is much I need to tell you. But, at the risk of you thinking me... thinking me... oh, what in the hells is that word?" She looked up at me with a frown to mirror her frustration. "_Hasha_."

Insane, I translated without thinking, then paused. I shouldn't have had to translate for her either. She spoke English as easily as I spoke her tongue... but, then, this wasn't her.

"Insane," she repeated with a short nod. "_Hasha_. _Veraha_, Tobi'as. At the risk of sounding insane-" She killed the pronunciation and it came out more like 'ihnsahnee' then what it was supposed to be. "-I cannot even begin to explain the problem."

I think you can try us, I said thoughtfully. Start with who you are and work from there. She nodded and tossed the long brunette ponytail over her shoulder. _That_ was a very Sarah thing to do and it confused me, because she did as naturally as the other Sarah had.

"My name is Sarah," she said easily. "That is truly my name, but obviously, I am not the person you think I am. I came here through a Transgate, a portal of kinds that is only supposed to move things leagues at the most. I am not leagues from home or even light-years - I am a dimension away from everything I have ever known." She didn't pause let us think about that and continued straight on. Another of the other Sarah's personality traits that this one seemed to have. "The Transgate was formed by my sister, Emily, and friend, Sadie, and was a complete accident. The negative space that forms around it took them both in, then another friend - Alay - followed, to get them back. I followed after her, to retrieve them, and woke up here, in this barn. You obviously think me either a Controller, which is not true, or someone you have known, which is also not true." Cassie came in the barn about the middle of this little dialogue and the stunned look on Ax's face was all she had to go on that Sarah's statement was hard to believe. What was harder was how Sarah had labeled her three friends that she was searching for - _itala_, a very dear friend, so close that blood was the only thing keeping them from sisterhood, and _itelan_, a twin sister. A _twin_. That would explain what she had meant when she said she couldn't 'sense her' anymore - 'her' was obviously this Emily girl.

Ax translated it for Cassie while Sarah and I simply looked at each other. She wasn't lying, that wasn't the problem - nothing about her said anything of nervousness and her eyes were clear and unclouded. The problem was... well, a lot of things. For one, how did we deal with her? Would any of the others believe it like I did? None of them knew Sarah as well as Ax and I... how would they take such a far out thing?

_I know what you're thinking, Tobi'as._ She gave a small, familiar grin as I started at hearing her human thought speak. _But you believe me, I know that too. You worry how your friends will take this and what they will do when they find out._

I believe you because you're telling the truth and nothing about you says you're lying, I told her, trying to regain my calm as I calmed the hawk instinct. But no one else trusted the other you - you weren't the most sociable person before.

_If I am truly meant to join you and fight - as an Animorph or as myself - then I will fight with you and no one else. _There was a conviction in her eyes that was unmatched by anything I had ever seen and I knew she meant it with all of her heart and soul. 

"Can I make a suggestion?" asked Cassie hesitantly. "I think, in the scope of things now and where we are in the battle with the Yeerks, it wouldn't be a good idea to heap something else on top of it all. This is going to sound traitorous, but I vote we don't tell the others until it is necessary. _Absolutely_ necessary."

"You... you believe me?" Sarah fidgeted and twisted her fingers together. "I... thank you, Cassie. Very much."

"You're not the Sarah we knew," said Cassie quietly. "That will be hard for them to understand, but you'll think of a reason for suddenly being a team player." Sarah grinned, then chuckled.

"Lying is one of my charms." A classic Sarah line, that. One more to the list of confusing things.

I agree with Cassie, I said. Though I hate hiding things from the rest of them, some things are better left between those who know.

I do not like lying, said Ax thoughtfully. Especially to Prince Jake. But, as Cassie said, in the scope of things, more pressure would harm before it would help. Sarah looked between us three and nodded.

"You are... truly good people," she said. "And there is something else I should share with you. As I have ended up with you, on the side of good, I have a distinct feeling that those who came before me... did not." There was a flash of pain in her eyes and she shuddered as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I am sorry but the thought of them as the enemy... it is a bad thing, if they truly are."

"Bad... how?" asked Cassie. Sarah sighed.

"My world, where I come from, is different greatly from yours. In the first part, Emily, Sadie, and Alay know things that would be... bad... in the hands of the enemy. In the second, Emily, Sadie, and Alay themselves are..." She frowned and looked up at me again. "Can you translate, please?" she asked in her own language. "It's hard to do this with my limited skills."

Yeah, I can. Go ahead.

"Thank you, Tobi'as. Where I come from, some people are gifted with a special power. We call it Casting and it is the ability to controls the four elements - fire, water, earth, and air." She paused and I translated this to Cassie, who was the only one present who understood little to nothing of what Sarah said. "Emily and Sadie are both Caster trainees and, in the hands of the Yeerks, will be hard to defeat. I have a small amount of Caster in me - very very little, so no hopes of me defeating them with their own power. And Alay is what we call a Weapon, a trained human that is just what the name means - a Weapon. Everything about a weapon is death, from barehanded blows, to blows with steal or wood." She hesitated again, then shook her head. "Alay I can defeat, because she has been my sparing partner for five years. I know exactly how she fights and a Yeerk in her mind will have no choice but to follow what her body knows. To a Weapon, fighting is instinct over mind and when a Weapon is in a fight, it is instinct that takes over for the large part of it." She sighed. "I cannot sense Emily, nor where she is, so I can only assume the worst."

If they truly are Controllers now, then...

"Then I will handle them," she said firmly, voice cold and hard as ice. "I came here to bring them home and nothing will stop that."

  
_Depressing, no? ... No. That's okay. It works. :) _


	6. Ch 5 Testing Loyalty

The Difference

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Chapter 6

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Test of Loyalty

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(Sarah)

There is a saying, among my people, that my mother used to say a lot when Emily and I were little, something about never trusting someone with two colored eyes... it is ironic, then, that they also say eyes are the windows to the soul. And my sister and best friends were those with two colored eyes I could not trust. Trapped in this backwards little dimension so very different from my own, I would have to trust those who knew me and at the same time, did not. Four Gods, what had I fallen into?

__

I spent the rest of that first afternoon with Cassie, Ax, and Tobias, learning - or relearning, depending how you looked at it - everything about the other me, from what classes I would be taking at the school to a whole score of other things that were completely new to me, including more English then I cared to know. Ax and Tobias helped me with that after Cassie had returned to her house and left us three alone. Then Ax had gone off to eat, leaving just Tobias and me. I clambered up into the hayloft and stretched out there, glad to take a break from having my head crammed.

"I don't think I've ever had that much stuffed into my head at once... ever," I sighed in my own language. English is hard and confusing, not simple like all languages should be. "I really was a _shena_, wasn't I?"

Only to everyone else, he answered. Not to me or Ax.

"Oh?" I asked, looked up at him. 

Yeah... you were a friend... _itala_. It should have shocked me, but it didn't. I merely shook my head.

"That doesn't have to change, Tobi'as," I told him quietly. "Maybe it can't be the same automatically, but I can be a friend." He was a silent a moment and in that moment, another bird swooped in and landed on the ground, then... began to change. Feathers to skin, a beak that split into a nose and mouth - I had never watched anything so disgusting in all of my life. A few moments later and the girl who could only be Rachel was standing on the floor, looking up at us. 

Rachel had a problem with the other Sarah, Tobias told me as I sat up in the hay and looked down at her. 

_Oh? What?_

Me. That took me a minute, but based on what I had been told and that Tobias had described the only me as an _itala_, it became glaringly obvious - Rachel was jealous.

_A complication,_ I thought to myself, jumping down and facing Rachel. I don't think, even to this day, I have ever faced anyone who hated me so much without knowing me at all. It was there in her eyes and in the way she tensed up with me in her general vicinity. 

"Hello," I said, taking my time so as not to confuse Rachel and myself. Stupid stupid English... "I have spent the day talking with Tobias and Ax and we have reached the decision that, with everything the way it is now, that I should become more of a... a..."

Team player, said Tobias in private thought speak, knowing that was the word that troubled me. 

"Team player," I finished. _Veraha, Tobias._

Not a problem.

"Look," said Rachel coldly. "I don't know what happened to fry your brain cells, but I don't like you and you don't like me. Frankly, I'm here simply because there's a chance you're gonna get toasted."

__

'Problem' doesn't begin to describe it, Tobias. She was absolutely spiteful. Jealously does weird things to people's minds and it was obvious that it had Rachel's tightly in its grip. _I think this is best resolved later, when I have a better grip on the situation._ Two more birds descended through the door and demorphed to become Jake and Marco, who were followed closely by Ax and Cassie, with a plate of food. 

"You haven't eaten in awhile, I'm guessing," she said, handing it to me with a grin. "Enjoy." I stared at in surprise, then smiled. 

"_Veraha, _Cassie," I said, feeling my stomach protesting at my taking so long. I hadn't eaten since the night before, which seemed like ages, and I had skipped breakfast to get an early start with Matt. In hindsight, it hadn't been the smartest move, but then, I hadn't known I would being Transgating into another dimension.

I settled myself on a bale of hay and set the plate on my lap as everyone else had a private conversation I knew was happening but couldn't hear. I knew what it was, though, the story we had worked out as to what had happened so that I ended up on Erek's front step, unconscious, what I remembered, supposedly anyway. I would be the one to break the news that I was suddenly becoming a part of the team... and the reason for that, which was something along the lines of what I had told Rachel.

I was about halfway through what I assumed was chicken - it tasted like it, but it looked nothing the chicken from my world - when I heard movement outside the door. No one else seemed to, though I know at least Ax did because one of his eye stalks swiveled that way and his tail twitched. I acted as if I had heard nothing, but set the plate on the bale of hay next to me and continued eating, the same as I had been before. Time to see if my hunch was correct. 

_Tobias, be ready to follow me if I run. Someone's out there and I have a feeling that... I know who it is._

I know, I saw it too, he said. Who? He went on with the tale while I debated whether Alay would be bold enough to... then I remembered that Alay could not be Alay anymore and that the Yeerk in her head with her memories _would_ be bold enough. Neither Emily nor Sadie had really read the books, so Alay would be the only one with any Animorphs knowledge... Unfortunately, that was more then enough people knowing.

_Alay_. Four Gods, what I wouldn't have given to just call to Alay and see that she was still Alay and not a Controller. One more ally against the enemy...

But fate likes to toy with us little mortals. It gave my sister amazing Caster strength and me so little that it barely counted. It took away Alay's home, but left her with a fighting style unmatched in the Academy. It left Sadie orphaned, only to be raised by Casters and have a power almost matching Emily's. And now, it had taken me from everything I had depended on and taken away everyone I had depended on... but what was I getting in return?

Sarah, you saw it too? The thought speak was Ax's and I nodded shortly with a mouthful of baked potato. Never _ever_ skip a meal. _Ever_. I was so hungry that, beyond food and the mystery person in the bushes, I wasn't thinking very much else.

Movement again and this time I knew she was leaving.

"Tobias, she's on the move!" I leapt up and raced after her, not waiting for Tobias' answer. She wasn't getting away with her confirmed information, not if I could help it. _Tobias, tell them they're welcome to follow, but anyone who gets in the way has something to lose..._

Will do. Be careful Sarah. I gave a small smirk at that. Careful? Not in a Weapon's vocabulary...


	7. Ch 6 Triple Play

The Difference

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Chapter 6

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Triple Play

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(Marco)

Now, I've never been the most trusting person but I never had a problem with Sarah's little... quirks. She was oddly temperamental, never moody, just easily angered, but you could depend on her for a lot of things, not that we did, because we just didn't trust her, but if there was a mission, she would know about it and show up if she felt the need to. And she usually did, if only to make sure Ax and Tobias made it out in one piece. That's friendship for you.

But, then again, Sarah had been a little more quirky then usual, especially with the emotional breakdown we had witnessed that morning. Something had happened to her and it was making her... weird.

Who are we chasing again? I dodged a tree branch, then another, then another. Damn forest!

Sarah made a few personal enemies among the Yeerks. One of them is an... assassin, named Alay - the host's name is Alay anyway. She's been following Sarah since last night, as far as Sarah can tell. 

_She thinks that my human form is a human morph - they all do. They've never seen me demorph, but they've followed me plenty of times. Just stay out of my way - this _shena_ is mine. _I knew what _shena_ meant and would've grinned, had I had lips. It translated to something really not nice in English, something like a cross between a whore and a cattle animal called a _reca_. Hey, I'm not so inept at Sarah-lingo. 

Jake, this just screams trap, said Rachel. She's been weird all day, she feeds Tobias a weak story, and, now, all of sudden, we're trailing someone we can neither see nor hear. I don't like this.

Do you not like it because it's Sarah in the lead or because you actually think it's a trap? The cold voice was Tobias, amazingly, as he stayed right on Sarah's tail. He may have cared for Rachel a lot, but not when she was making accusations about Sarah. Sarah, there's a clearing ahead. She's stopped and is waiting.

_Thank you, Tobias._

Prince Jake, it has been almost two hours. We need to stop and demorph. There was a silence.

All right. Everyone stay in the trees. Sarah, hang back a minute. Let her think you're demorphing, then morphing again. Sarah stopped and hung back, eyeing the upcoming clearing angrily. If she had had fur, it would have been bristling.

So how much of a problem is this Alay chick anyway? I asked as I landed to demorph. Sarah looked back at me and frowned. 

"She's a good fighter," she whispered. "Stay clear and out of sight, or she'll try and take one of you out as well."

"You still there, _Andalite_?" The word was said with scorn and a small chuckle, as if it was some big joke. "_Gehna, Sarah?_"

"_Ia Gehan!_" Sarah yelled back angrily. "All of you, stay here. You're welcome to watch, but do _not_ get in our way." She crept from behind the tree and disappeared into the underbrush. We all did the same, pausing at the edge of the clearing and staying hidden. 

There was another person in the clearing, someone about the same age as the rest of us, with dark brown hair, almost black, with several blonde streaks, two of which fell over her face and framed a smile that wasn't at all nice. She carried a thin sword in one hand and a book in the other.

"Long time no see, _itala_." Sarah frowned and I saw her eyes flutter a moment.

"_Controller_," she sneered angrily. "Nice try, _shena_, but your plan won't work. You're not leaving this meeting alive."

"Oh, I don't plan on spreading my new information among the Yeerks," said the other girl calmly, examining her fingernails. "You see, the more people who know, the less chance there is it will be _me_ who brings one of your sorry carcasses in and gets a promotion. So, you see, it's more beneficial if I alone know... well, maybe the other two can as well." Alay smirked as a shudder went through Sarah.

"You... I'll kill you..."

"Does it hurt, Sarah? Yes, they're Controllers too. We took the strongest one first, this body, then forced her to watch as we took the other two. They screamed so nicely... wish you could've been there. We actually would have taken you first then and you would have seen it al-" Sarah was just suddenly there, directly in front the Controller, then had her down with one hit. She backed off, ready to hit again, and practically growling. I had never seen anyone move so fast and apparently, neither had the Yeerk, because it had come as a great surprise. She struggled up to her feet and glared daggers at her opponent, then wiped away the blood on her cheek. "You... hit me... you aren't supposed to be able to hit me!"

"You're confusing me with someone else then, Controller." Sarah's voice was like ice, hard and unforgiving. "Search Alay's memories. Find every one of the times we've spared and know that I was there as well. Nothing you do can surprise me." The Yeerk was silent a moment, then grinned wickedly.

"You'd like to think so," she said smoothly. "But, you see, like you, I prefer not to travel alone." She raised her hands above her head and a white fog began to spill out of them, falling like water through her fingers to spread across the clearing. Sarah gasped and backed away from it, all the while looking around. Then her eyes locked on mine and she nodded.

She says to not let the fog touch you. It's a sort of an... anti-oxygen, said Tobias. __Then why are you standing there?! he yelled. Get out of the clearing! She gave a small chuckle and shook her head. What... the others? There are two other people in the clearing, she says, and that it's not Alay doing it.

__

"That goes with what she told us," whispered Cassie. "But where are they?"

"Where are _who_?" I asked as I looked around the clearing. Oddly enough, my eyes seemed to simply slid over two separate spots and when I wasn't looking at them, I could almost see two people, but only out of the corner of my eye.

"There and there," I whispered, pointing. One of them was very close to us, in fact, and if I focused on looking at Sarah, she was actually in the way of my vision. If these were the two doing it - I had no idea what _it_ was, by the way, just that it was trapping Sarah, and it made me sick to my stomach for whatever reason. If these two were the ones causing it, then they would have to be stopped. "Do we have a plan or do we just rush in?"

"We don't rush in," said Jake. "We need to stay away from that fog at all costs." The fog now covered everything in the clearing except a small space around Sarah's feet. She was trembling and incredibly pale, but still looking around hopefully. 

"Just give in, Sarah!" laughed Alay. "You can't beat us! You're too weak!" The small space caved and the fog wrapped around Sarah, practically dragging her to the ground with it. She collapsed, vanishing under the surface of the fog and the Controller lowered her hands, grinning. "That was too easy. You would think she would have been harder to take down."

"Don't underestimate her," warned a voice before two more girls appeared, in the same place that I had sorta seen them before. And, as more of a surprise - since we hadn't had enough of those - one of them looked _exactly_ like the Sarah. The other was slightly taller, with a mass of uncontrolled brown curls and hazel eyes full of hate.

"Can we just go back already?" she asked. "This human body is weak and frail - I wish I could use that power thing in a useful body, like a Hork-Bajir."

"Or an Andalite?" asked Alay. "With this one, we might be able to kick Visser 3 out of his body - then you could have it."

"That," said the girl. "Would be wonderful." The one that looked like Sarah pressed her palms together, then spread them apart, dispersing the fog. Sarah lay completely still amongst a mass of brown plants and dead grasses.

This is our chance, said Tobias. We can't let them take her.

"Can you and Ax cause a diversion?" Jake asked Tobias.

It would be our pleasure, answered Ax coldly, tail twitching. 

"Be careful," cautioned Cassie. "Don't kill them." Ax nodded gravely as Tobias swooped out of the branch. He would have to get some air before he could do any damage to them.

"Everyone but Marco morph bird of prey," continued Jake. "Marco, you morph gorilla and get Sarah while we keep them distracted."

"Can do," I replied. How fun. I got to play the hero to Sarah - I hope I was getting good brownie points for this. Given, any points with Sarah would have been good to have...

I morphed while the others did, taking my time so the gorilla bulk wouldn't give us away until after the others were causing trouble. I heard Tobias screech, then one of the girls scream as a mad bird attacked her suddenly and without warning. Ax leapt into the clearing and there was a dull thud that could only be someone getting the broad side of a tail blade. I actually pitied whoever it was...

"Andalite!" A pissed off yell that wasn't Alay. "I'll kill you!!"

Yeerk, you would not have a chance.

"Stop arguing with it!" said another voice. "He already took out Alay. Just grab the human and let's get the hell out of here."

"Are you _dumb_?" snapped the first one. "She's one of them, you moron! And if there's one, all of the others are here too! This mission is a failure..."

_Got that right,_ I thought to myself.

"Me? Dumb? Are you forgetting, stupid, that these bodies can control the elements? Where were in the last fifteen minutes when we created that fog?" Silence...

Ax, just knock them out already, before they hurt themselves! I called with thought speak. These were obviously not your average Yeerks - they were a whole lot dumber.  
  
_Yes, it ends there. Bwah. I am evil... and now I'm gonna go hide because Forlay's gonna come after me... I think..._


	8. Ch 7 Betrayed

The Difference

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Chapter 7

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Betrayed

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(Sarah)

Fire. 

Everything was burning...

No, not everything, just...

I could hear the chanting in the air, loud and angry, a sound I knew too well.

"Death! Death! Death! Death!"

No... it couldn't be happening again. Kael...

And there it was, that horrid group of masked murderers, with the small child tied to a post over fire like... some kind of sacrifice. The fire had reached his torn clothes and licked hungrily at the frayed edges of his pants. Not again, no, not again!

"Kael!" I bolted out of my forced sleep with the cold fear gripping my chest like bands of steel. Every time... I couldn't escape that vision, that nightmare, even though it was all in the past. When my eyes were open, I could forget his screams and the cheers of his killers... but when I closed my eyes, I was there again, trapped in an endless loop of watching my brother die and being so helpless to stop it...

"Sarah?" I looked up into worried eyes and had to force myself to forget again... Kael was long dead and the present was confusing enough without me having painful flashbacks.

"I... I am all right," I muttered, wiping the tears off my face. No dream of that was complete without tears and the fear that had never left me, the fear of losing all of my family like I had lost Kael... and now... _Oh, gods above!_ Everything came back in a rush of hateful memories - Alay, the fight, Sadie... Emily... I had lost them all. And there was nothing I could do about it, except take in a shaky breath to calm myself before I began to cry again. This was no longer the time, nor the place, to show weakness. "I take it, then, that I passed out?" I asked, forcing every bit of pain to the back of my mind. I could deal with that later.

"You're back in Cassie's barn," said Jake. "You did pass out, but we managed to keep you from being captured." I nodded, feeling abruptly ashamed of the position I had put them all in.

"I... thank you," I said quietly. "I had not expected all three of them to be there at the same time. Alay I could have handled alone... but all of them together..." I shook my head. 

That was Casting, wasn't it? asked Tobias privately. I kept myself from nodding.

_Yes... Emily and Sadie used Alay as a... channel, of sorts, and combined their powers. The fact that I am alive now can only be explained by the fact that they didn't leave the fog around me long enough to suffocate me completely. Just enough to knock me unconscious..._ Yeerks. Yeerks with the powers of two Casters and an almost full fledged Weapon. Things couldn't get a whole helluva lot worse.

"So," said Rachel coolly. "How did you know those three?" Four Gods, of _course_ they could get worse. I'm stuck in a dimension where everyone thinks they know me and the ones who know the truth aren't going to tell anyone for the sake of everyone _elses'_ sanity. And on top of that, I don't know how in the Five Hells I'm getting home, but I came to get Alay and them and I wasn't leaving until I had them!

"Rachel..." I stopped myself before I said something I was going to regret and simply shook my head. "I can't think straight right now, much less explain those three..." _Tobias... I want to go home... my home..._

Cassie and I will take Sarah back to her house, said Tobias to everyone. I know, he said privately. But this is the best we can do for now.

_Veraha..._ Jake nodded and shot a quiet look to Rachel, who looked ready to protest. She shut up quickly enough, but shot me a glare to end all glares. 

"We'll meet again tomorrow," he said firmly. "Here, at noon, all right?" I nodded, though I doubted I would be able to get back to the barn on my own - I also doubted I would be up before noon. So I would be a little late - I didn't care. Every part of my ached horribly and I was just so... _exhausted._ That's what I got for trying to Cast against the powers of Emily and Sadie combined - I had lasted maybe half a minute and used up all my strength while, if it had been them in my spot, they could have held out for hours. Useless little power I had...

"Noon," I repeated, nodding. _Tobias, by the way, where do I live?_

We'll show you, don't worry, he said to me and Cassie. But Sarah, your foster parents are Controllers. I was silent a moment, the sucked in a deep breath through my nose and shook my head.

_Of course, because it's not like I don't have enough to deal with suddenly._ I was going to personally throttle Emily and Sadie for being the cause of all of this. If they hadn't formed that damned Transgate...

But, no, that was wrong. It wasn't their fault I was here - I'd had every opportunity to stop and think about the situation instead of rushing in blindly like I had. This was my fault and I had to take responsibility for my actions. Then again, I couldn't throttle myself, so blaming Sadie and Emily gave me something to do with pent up frustration. 

"We'll meet up again tomorrow," said Jake, giving me an odd sidelong glance. "All of us." I nodded slowly and brushed a stray bit of hair back over my ear. I wanted to be home, _my _home, but I couldn't... I had to retrieve my sister and the other two. That was my mission, I told myself firmly. And Weapons do not abandon missions.

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Um... in the interest of saving my sanity, we'll end it there. For some reason, this chapter gave me a load of trouble and I don't know... maybe it's something to do with trying to write this and that one scene as well... anyway, Chapter 8 - "Logical Problems" is next and that shouldn't take me half as long as this. And for my newly appointed Beta reader, your job starts then. ~bg~ -- SMS


	9. Ch 8 Logical Problems

The Difference

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Chapter 8

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Logical Problems

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(Marco)

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_Knock knock knock!_

... No answer.

_Knock knock knock!_

Marco, just relax, said Tobias. She's getting up. Sarah, it's Marco. You better get moving. There was a pause, then Tobias laughed. I'd be stringy, just to spite you. Several thuds and one loud curse - at least it sounded like a curse- later, the front door opened. Sarah blinked at me with bleary eyes and wrinkled her nose.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" she asked.

"Apparently way too early," I retorted. "Even though it's 11 am."

"_Shanka caei,_" she muttered. "It is still too early, but what do you want?" This was the hard part. At the risk of sounding like I was losing my mind, I still had to ask her. She knew the three that we had had the pleasure of meeting the week before and I had some questions about two of them.

"It's about two of the girls from last week," I said, choosing my words carefully. "The ones that weren't there and then... were." She held up her hand and sighed.

"All right, I see where this going. You want to know where they came from?" I shook my head. Not quite...

"No, they were there the whole time. I could see them... sort of. It was weird but... they were there." She was silent a moment, then narrowed her eyes at me.

"_Nakeita nui...?_" She chewed her lip in thought. "Marco, come inside please. There is something... I want to try, first, before I answer your question." My paranoid instinct went off a little - we still weren't entirely sure she wasn't a Controller. But she gave me a pleading look, like it was the most important thing in the world to her and I caved. It was hard to refuse a pretty girl and Sarah was definitely pretty. As I walked into the house, she stepped back to give me room and motioned to the basement. "I am not sure if my... parents are home, so the basement would be the best place. Let me put some clothes on and I will meet you down there." I waited until she disappeared into her bedroom before laughing. She had no idea how that had sounded, she couldn't have, or she wouldn't have said it. It gave the impression that she had answered the door without clothes on, but she had, in fact, been wearing a nice little red nightie thing. Okay, so I liked Sarah. Not as much as I liked seeing her in the red nightie, but I liked her a lot, more then a friend... most of the time. Sometimes she was just plain scary and other times she was really... irritating. 

She emerged from her room in black pants and black shirt, carrying a brush and a hair band in one hand. As I followed her down the stairs, she pulled her hair up and tied it tightly. The only other person with so much hair was Rachel and hers wasn't half as thick as Sarah's. 

"Sit somewhere," she instructed when we reached the floor. It was a nice, finished basement, with several couches, chairs, beanbags, small tables, and pillows strewn about, with candles on pretty much every table. It would have been a great place to hold the meetings, if Ax wasn't an Andalite, Tobias wasn't a bird, and Sarah's foster parents weren't Controllers. Still, a nice place, albeit a little stuffy...

I chose the middle of a dark green couch while Sarah looked around and finally found a footstool to drag over. It was a large maroon thing that looked like it had seen better days, but was somehow still holding itself together. She pushed it to right in front of me and turned it sideways, straddling it and looking me over again. 

"Give me your..." She thought a moment and held out her hands in front of her. "Um... right hand. I think that is what it is called. This one," she said, holding up her left hand. I didn't say anything, it was too easy, but held out my left hand to her. "_Veraha,_" she said absently. I took that as a kind of thank you. "All right, two things. One, what those two - they are called Emily and Sadie, by the way - what they did is called Casting. It is a power that they use to control and manipulate the four elements of the planet. I have small amount of ability, not very much, and I used all of it last week to try and hold back the fog they created." She shook her head. "I did not last long enough. But, that is beside the point. Now... let us hope I have gotten enough energy back to do this..." She spread her hands and held them about a quarter of an inch from my one hand that I was still holding above the footstool. Not quite touching, but not too far away either.

I looked up from our hands and accidentally locked eyes with her. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like what I saw that day - her eyes just drew me in and I was drowning without even moving. Then I heard a gasp and a thud and my vision cleared to find Sarah laying on the ground with the footstool toppled over beside her.

"Sarah?" My voice was raw and my throat dry for some reason and when I tried to stand, my legs were weak. "Are you all right?" She was silent as I knelt over her and touched her shoulder. I felt a... a... shock, of some kind, race through me and down my arm to Sarah. My sight blurred and I felt the rush of a major headache that hit me like a baseball bat to the head. I had to catch myself on my hands to keep from falling on top of Sarah as she gave a faint groan and brought her hand to her temple. A scar on the back of her wrist was a bright white, almost glowing, as she massaged her forehead with a look of pain.

"Not enough strength to do it right, but it was done," she muttered. A scar... she shouldn't have had a scar! Every wound and every injury was morphed off in battle, no scars, no marks, nothing. 

"What... what are you?" I asked, backing up on my knees. "You're not Sarah!" She struggled into a sitting position and rested her head between her knees.

"Wow... I wasn't warned about _that_ when they taught us how to test..." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and frowned. "No, I'm not Sarah... well, not the same Sarah, anyway." She stretched her legs out, but kept her head down, her ponytail falling over her shoulder and obscuring her face slightly. "The other Sarah is... gone. I don't know where, but I had nothing to do with it. I only arrived in this dimension last week. Ugh." She heaved a sigh as I sat in a stunned silence. Another... dimension? What kind of crap was she trying to feed me?! I wasn't stupid! "Look, all right, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. That day, last week, when you all thought I was acting weird, I wasn't. I was scared and lost but... I am not anymore. I will tell you more later, but it is not important right now. Okay." She staggered to her feet and tossed the ponytail over her shoulder. "Before I explain, there is something you need to understand, Marco - you have something inside of you right now, a... a power. Like this." She held up her hand and, without touching it, drew it across the table and up into her hand. Then, to add to it, she tapped the wick with her index finger and I watched, stunned, as a flame sprouted up, flickered, then died when she snapped her fingers. "Now, given, I should not have done that because I am still kind of weak, but..." She narrowed those blue eyes at me and frowned. "This will be bad if Emily and the others hear of it. Now, we have established you can Cast - the next step is to get you grounded before you lash out and really do some damage." I was trying not to look confused, but she was throwing new things at me - Cast? Grounded? - while I was still trying to figure out the candle thing. And what had happened before that. And how it was possible for me to go from asking a simple question to watching Sarah lift and light a candle without the use of any tool.

"Can I... ask a question?" I ventured. She nodded empathetically. 

"Ask any questions you have," she replied. "I am the one who discovered you can Cast, so it is my duty to teach you the basics, since I can not haul you off to the Academy... unfortunately."

"Uh, right. Can you do me a favor and start at the beginning? And this time explain everything in idiot's terms? Please?" She blinked, then laughed.

"_Kai desdeh,_" she grinned. "I always jump ahead and assume everyone else knows what I am talking about. What is the phrase Trainer Rosette uses? Shooting my mouth off? Yes, I do that a lot."

Hey, are you still alive in there? I knew Tobias was joking, but it was tempting to answer 'no'. I certainly felt like I had died and gone... elsewhere. Somewhere with a twisted and warped reality. Me? Do what she had done with the candle? Not in a million years...

Sarah must have answered the bird-boy, because he answered back with,'

Marco can _what_?! Tell me you're joking. Pause, in which Sarah frowned, then made a face. All right, all right, yeah, I know a place. How long are you going to take? Pause again. Okay. I'll be waiting. And Marco, you're really stepped in it this time. Sarah made a face and muttered something while I retorted,

_Thanks but you have a human for too, smart-ass. You may have it too._

Marco, you have no idea what 'it' is, do you?, answered Tobias. Sarah giggled, guessing what I had said to gain such an answer from the bird.

_... No,_ I replied. _But I mean to find out._

Glossary:  
Shanka caei - damn it_  
Nakeita nui - _could (it) be  
_Veraha - _thank you  
_Kai desdeh - _No problem!


	10. Interlude Glossary, P 1

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figured not was a good a time as any to load what I have so far on the glossary of terms for Sarah's language - It's called Teslahahni, by the way. :) Most of these are from past stories and a few at the end are from the next chapter, but there will be more in the chapter that aren't here, because I haven't finished the chapter yet... ~sigh~... Anyway, have fun!

The Difference

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Glossary

nec'rin - homosexual

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itala - heart sister

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itelan - twin sister

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italan - sister of blood that is not a twin

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itale - sister through bond (ie step sister or sister-in-law)

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atala - heart brother

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atelan - twin brother

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atalan - brother of blood that is not a twin

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atale - brother through bond, see _itale_

entale - cousin

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hei - have

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na - you

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ni - me

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Animarpha - Animorphs

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Mei - what

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Shanka - damn

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kai - no (used in context of something is exempted, ie, have you no (kai) heart)

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lan - heart

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Vercha - please

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mer - let

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corian - sleep

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Veraha - thank you

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Jai - yes

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jaia - no (used as a refusal)

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gen - day

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Sehar desha - sleep well

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lina - little

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Wi - we

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ria - come

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gewmani - survive

Hedashan jei - an old oath, untranslatable directly to English, something like 'I promise with my soul'

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Ia -I

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nin -not

caraona - fallen (_cara _fall, -_ona _is -en)

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le -this

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nendehsha - One of the Five Hells of the Teslahahn, where the sinners who lost faith in their Gods go after they die

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len -want

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ge -to

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inda - stop

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kerai - running (_ke _is run and -_rai _is -ing)

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Hasha - insane

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Gehna - a command for one to 'come'

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Gehan - answer to the previous command, something like 'coming'

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shena - Teslahani insult

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murai - scaring (mu- is 'scare' and -rai is 'ing)

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mi - my

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farhed - student

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Ratia - bird

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kigan - brain


	11. Ch 9 Painful Laughter

The Difference

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Chapter 9

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Painful Laughter

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(Marco)

_Look, bird-boy, it can't be half as bad as you make it out to be._

Marco, take it from me, _I've_ seen Sarah "meditate". It's _not_ meditation. It's beating defenseless trees!

_I think you're confused, Tobias. Meditation is sitting on the ground, quietly, and centering yourself... or something. It's not whacking trees!_

That's what you'd like to think- Sarah threw open her bedroom window and hurled a shoe at the tree where Tobias sat.

"_Inda murai mi farhed!_" she hollered, then closed the window with a loud smack and shook her head. "_Ratia kigan..._"

_Shena!_ Sarah made a face and muttered something under her breath.

"You know you live in the sticks when you can hurl things at birds and you know no one is around to see it," I commented. She made a face at me and laughed.

"_You_ are as bad as _mi atala,_" she stated, opening her closet. "All right, as I was saying, Casting is not based on anything anyone has been able to pinpoint yet. Neither of my parents have it, nor their parents, nor their parents' parents, but my aunt and her husband - her Weapon partner, truthfully- has it. Then again, none of _their_ children have it. So it is random." She dragged a duffel bag out of the depths of her closet and began to pull clothes out of it as I mauled over the last bit of information.

"Then how do you find Casters?" I asked. "You can't test everyone... can you?" She shrugged.

"Over two-thirds of the Academy is Caster or Cross. And there are, currently, almost a half a billion Casters, Crosses, and Weapons on the field at this point in time. Given, the world population back home is..." She paused in thought. "200 billion, and of course, it grows every day. The Casters who are on the field test as many as they can and usually, those they find with potential, they then send back to the Academy. Occasionally, you will get a case of a storm or distance or something causing in obstacle in the thing, so there is a law through the Academy that says something to the effect of 'if you find Caster potential and can not get the child to the Academy in a certain amount of time, then you have to escort them back and teach them the basics along the way.' That is what has lead us to where we are right now." She stopped and frowned. "_Le..._" Carefully, she pulled something out of the bag and laid it in her lap. "_Raerai..._" she murmured with a shake of her head. 

"What it is?" I asked, leaning over. 

"It is... 'Lay's knife," she said quietly, forcing a weak smile. "I... she left it in the room, so I was bringing it to her and..." It was obvious that she was trying to control her voice, but I could hear the painful mixture of fear and loss. She had explained everything to me and it was all pretty farfetched... except for the scars - on her wrist, her shoulders, her leg... they were all so _old._ There was no conceivable explanation for them apart from the fact that _this_ Sarah was an almost completely different Sarah.

She gave a shake of her head and tossed the knife, odd sheath and all, back into the bag.

"It is beyond the point," she said, returning to the closet. "We have more important things to worry over." She dragged another duffel bag out of the back of her closet, this one almost identical to the one already in the room. "I found this last night. The other me thought I would need some weapons." She began to haul things out of the bag, big things, small things, and a random black box that she examined with a frown before pushing under her bed. Then she pulled out two black bags and set them behind her before gathering up the other things to return them to the bag.

"What _is_ all that?" I inquired. She grinned.

"Academy issue weapon set," she answered. "Given to Weapons when they reach full status. _Sedoai, sendo, de sereai_," she said, pointing out each one as she named them. "_De secoh_, _de cleh secoh_," she added as she put the other weapons away. "We will use _secoh. _The only problem is I am not sure which of these bags is _cleh secoh _and which is not."

"What is..." I frowned, trying to remember how she had pronounced it. "_Cleh secoh?_"

Bladed staff kind of thing, said Tobias. Sarah, let's not stick our hand in the bag this time. Sarah made a face at Tobias, then held up her left hand so I could see the half healed cut that ran from the tip of her index finger to her palm.

"I was feeling for the blade," she said. "I slipped and cut myself. Tobi'as laughed at me."

It was pretty funny, _itala._

"I can think of many things more funny, _atala,_" she said with false innocence. He ignored her, I think, while she picked up one bag and dumped the contents carefully into her lap. A bundle of slightly thick wooden sticks fell out and she looked them over with a critical eye. "It could be _cleh secoh_, but it should be all right without the blade. All right! Let us go!" She dropped the _cleh_ into the first duffel bag and stood. "Come!"

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Holy monkey... I'm ending this now. I have_ the other chapters written, and for some unknown reason, this one just... wants to be stupid and dumb, so it's gonna end.~SMS_


	12. Ch 10 Alay Returns

The Difference

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Chapter 10 -Alay Returns

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(Marco)

She hit, I blocked. Left, high, low, right - block block block block.

My name is Marco. Marco-who-has-gotten-more-bruises-in-two-weeks-then-he-has-in-his-life. Marco-who-can't-sit-without-wincing. Marco-who-has-taken-more-hits-from-one-person-then-anyone-_ever_.

She dropped into a crouch and whipped the _secoh_ around in a low arch, an attempt to knock me off my feet. This was her favorite move, her Final Strike, as Tobias called it. She preferred to end all bouts and battles with it. But it _wasn't_ over yet. In two weeks of spending seven hours _every god damned day_ with her, I had learned not only how to dodge and counter this attack, but also that she left herself open to being pushed over.

Oh the joys of meditation.

She fell back and hit the dirt hard, feeling the blow of _my_ _secoh_ in her shoulder. I, unfortunately, had misjudged the block and still got knocked over by her swipe. I landed hard on my butt, feeling one more bruise added onto multiple others.

Silence. A tie. After countless attempts, I have finally "grounded" her. But she had gotten me too. Almost one for me, but not quite there…

"Marco?"

"I wanted to attack, not defend. I wiped sweat from my forehead and took in a slow breath. "Since you fell first, can I win?" There was silence again, then she started giggling. Hard to believe _Sarah_ can giggle, but it's actually a really nice sound….

"_Fine_, you win." She rolled onto her stomach, then pushed herself up on her hands. "Ugh. Lost to a novice. Please, do not tell Tobi'as. He will _not_ let me "live it down", I believe is the phrase."

"Yeah, that sounds right - and he wouldn't let you live it down, so I won't tell Tobias." Tobias, no. Everyone else, probably. Except… I still couldn't tell Jake. That was the worst part. I had to keep all of this a secret from my best friend. I wasn't alone, of course - Cassie couldn't tell _her_ best friend, Tobias couldn't tell _his _girlfriend, and Ax couldn't tell his Prince. We had all sworn to keep it a secret as long as possible, to save the added stress. But it was adding stress to _our_ lives to have to lie for Sarah…

She stood carefully and rotated her shoulder to check for damage. That a little bit more to my triumph. She had _never_ checked for damage the other five (count 'em, _five_) times I had managed to land a hit.

"So," I asked casually. "Another round? It's only 2 'o' clock." Everyday, for seven hours, we had done this. Meet around 10, go at it 'till lunch at 12:30 (Sarah always brought something - apparently, she can cook too), relaxed and hung out for about another half hour after that, then back to it until 6. We had started later then usual, though, because of a mission the night before. Sarah, who avoided morphing at all costs, chose instead to add another list to the growing fights between her and Alay. She held off the Controller while we got what we needed - "Held off" being used lightly. I have never seen a battle change possible winners so often. Sarah managed to kick ass _and_ still be losing for part of it, before it was pretty well declared a draw just as we were getting ready to leave.

"No," she answered simply, brushing her ponytail over her shoulder. In the mottled sunlight of the clearing, something glinted at her neck and it took me a minute to realize what it was - her data disk. The whole point of the mission had been to retrieve six data disks that Erek had warned us contained information that would be useless to us, but incredibly valuable to the Yeerks. There were three that contained the actual data and then three that were backups of the first set. Personally, we had no idea what went with what set. Every disk was marked with a different colored shape. Mine, for instance, was a blue triangle looking thing while Sarah was a green asterisk. Around her neck, though, you couldn't see the symbol, because she had turned it over so the symbol was against her neck - now it looked like a costume piece from a futuristic sci-fi movie, which suited her fine.

"No?" I repeated.

"No," she said again. "We will try something else for today." She didn't say it, but I knew she was still hurting from the night before. She and Alay had really laid into each other and then, just as we were making a quick and hasty getaway, we, Sarah more specifically, had taken the full brunt of a double Caster blow. Those of us that were morphed had managed to get rid of most the damage, with the exception of the creepy feeling of burning fur, but Sarah had refused to morph (again), choosing instead to stick with the pain. I hadn't figured out yet what she had against morphing, but I knew someone who would know…

Done already? Speak of the devil-bird. Tobias landed on the branch where Sarah's duffel bag hung and shifted his weight to get comfortable. Feeling better, _itala?_

"_Jai, veraha_," she snapped irritably as she climbed onto a stump to reach her bag. We had learned that even if we had eaten all that she has brought for lunch, small creatures still liked to climb inside to find the source of the food smells. And Sarah, apparently, had a deep dislike of rats and chipmunks. The rats I could understand, but chipmunks…? Another question to ask Tobias…

"Since I am in no mood to continue fighting today…" She began to pull items out of the bag - Alay's dagger, a strange crystal, and a familiar small black box - then closed the bag up and pulled it off its branch. "We will move on. Marco, pick up the _secoh_ and follow me." I opened my mouth to ask what the heck we were going to do next, but she didn't even wait for that as she disappeared into the forest. I grabbed her _secoh_, which she had dropped, and followed after her. I felt a light breeze as her guard came down and then a natural wind that came up behind. I could never understand why she waited until she was out of the clearing to remove the guard but… I'm sure there was a reason.

And, of course, she was limping, _still_. She had been limping the night before, she had been limping that morning, and she was limping now as she trekked the forest - it wasn't a prominent limp, but if you were used to seeing her walk a certain way, you could definitely see it now. It was like… watching a wounded stray dog hobble around after a fight. It still felt it could do anything, but it knew its limits now…

_And _you_ can't get her to morph it off?_ I asked Tobias. _I would think…_

I've _tried_ Marco, all morning and beyond that, he answered. She's just too stubborn. Stubborn and scared. Scared? Sarah? Of _what_? There was nothing in morphing be afraid of… at least, if you ignored the whole aliens-threatening-the-world-aspect, but that hadn't phased Sarah in the slightest.

_Scared? She told you that?_ She started walking faster and the limp became less noticeable, but it was still there - whether the new speed was to hide the limp or not remained to be seen.

She didn't have to. I saw it on her face last night, when she watched you and the others morph. Beside that, we don't even know if she _can_ morph. She may not have been given it… There was a tone to his voice that made me stop and look up at him. Was it possible he had reached the same conclusion I had, that Sarah's presence wasn't an accident?

_You think…_

I think it's possible, he replied. She's a pawn, like the rest of us. The only question is a pawn for who? Sarah plunged through a line of bushes and stopped, looking around. Assuming we had reached our destination, I followed right after her - and tripped, then slid, then finally stopped at the bottom of a small hill, waist deep in water.

"There are many things you need to learn before I teach you to cast," came Sarah's voice from above me. "Just because you can center your power does not mean it is controlled. Much like the creek you sit in, everything runs in a straight line, but nothing except nature can control the water's path." I looked back up her, angry that I had been tricked, and really cold beside that, and saw she stood a few inches above the slope of the hill, watching me with a calm look in her eyes.

That was philosophical, commented Tobias. And really amusing. You look like your enjoying yourself, Marco. 

"Smart ass bird…" I pulled myself out of the water and stood, instantly feeling the chill of the wind. Sarah raised an eyebrow, then tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. She stepped off of whatever platform of Caster power she had been standing on and the tree branches above her head shook with the lack of weight - what did that mean? That to create such a platform, you needed to hook it onto something overhead?

"Water is the easiest Caster element to control." Sarah slid down the hill on her feet, leaving both of the bags and the crystal on the ground, and stopped in the water next to me. "Even the slightest bit can go a long way. It is easily manipulated and is not picky about who controls it."

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "Are you telling me it can tell the difference between one Caster and another?" She blinked at me, then shook her head.

"No, not like that. All of the elements are overseen by forces we cannot see - my people call them _seharai nenda_ - that is, "sleeping eyes". They watch who casts and decides if that person should be granted full strength of the element or less then what is needed. They can be very fickle, like in the case of the fire _sehar nenda_ or very forgiving, like the water. Air and earth judge more evenly, but are usually very little trouble."

"That's… kinda hokey, ain't it?" She gave me a weird look.

"Ho… key? Aent?" she repeated. "What is… ho-key and aehnt??" The look on her face when she tried to pronounce the word was classic and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Hokey is something that is hard to believe. And 'ain't' is really bad grammar. Don't repeat it - Tobias will kill me for teaching you bad English," I answered, grinning. 

"Ho… key," she said again. "I will remember that. Ho-key." She shook her head, then tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "English is a strange language. I will never understand all of it."

"Sarah, I don't think even the native speakers understand it," I said, making her laugh.

"They say the same of my people back home," she answered, smiling - whoo, what a smile. I tried to keep my thoughts in line so I didn't come off as an idiot, but it was just so… brilliant. Beautiful. Amazing. Glorious.

"You know," commented a cold voice at my shoulder. "It's really a pity I have to kill you too. You have an interesting sense of humor." I went cold at the world "kill" and at the voice - I had heard it before. It sounded like.

"Alay, _inda_!" Three things happened at once - I ducked without even thinking about ducking, simply because Sarah enstowed upon me a sense of what to do in danger, Sarah herself scooped up one of the _secoh_ I had dropped in my fall, and Alay attempted to take off my head with a single swipe of her sword. Staff and blade met over my head in a deep, resounding _thunk_ that echoed along the creek bed. 

"Were your kind not taught manners?" asked Sarah darkly, forcing Alay back with a hard shove. She placed herself between me and the blade wielding crazy-woman and stood there, one hand on her hip and murder in her eyes. You've never seen murder as an emotion until you've seen Sarah pissed. "You should know better then to ambush people."

"If you weren't such a stubborn thorn in my side, I would have killed you by now and I wouldn't _have_ to ambush you," Alay shot back. Sarah growled low in her throat and pulled me up by my elbow as she lifted her _secoh_ into what I had come to think of as a "fight" position, then shoved me behind her.

"How did you get past Tobi'as?" Was she planning on _protecting_ me, by pushing me behind her? It certainly felt like she was - but maybe she was just used to protecting people. From what she had told me of Weapons, that was pretty well what they did, protect. I couldn't be mad at her for doing what she had been taught to do… could I? I don't _like_ being protected, and call me chauvinisitic, but I especially don't like being protected by members of the opposite sex.

"The bird?" asked Alay. "Oh, I left him for dead in the forest. Can't have anyone warning your friends, now can I?" Sarah's hand tightened on the _secoh _and I couldn't see, but I knew the murder had become Murder, with a capital 'M', in her eyes. Alay had crossed a line.

"Marco." She glanced back over her shoulder at me and I saw what I had guessed - pure hatred shown darkly in her usually happy blue eyes. "_Veraha_, find Tobi'as and get him to demorph… then come back." She looked back at Alay and shifted her grip on her _secoh. _"No one warning the others, remember? _Nin_ _li_ _na_ _des li vebna._"

"_Na_ _li_ _murai_ _mi._" 

"We will see about that, _reca_!" Sarah lunged and they were at again - but it was different. This whole thing was somehow different. _This_ was to be the last time, period. Whoever won, someone would lose. No ties…

I couldn't stay to watch. Even if I wanted to, I had to find Tobias and we somehow had to warn… no, we weren't going to warn the others. It was just Alay, no one else. Sarah could handle Alay and if it came to it, Tobias and I could help her/save her. We _had_ all the help we needed… given, of course, Tobias was still alive.

_Bird boy, if you die, you're really gonna get it from Sarah…_


	13. Ch 11 One of Those Days When You Wanna...

The Difference

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Chapter 11 - One of Those Days When You Wanna Cry

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(Marco)

The blood I smelled in wolf morph I could never have smelled as a human. It was such a faint odor, but it was there…

True to her word, Alay had left Tobias on the forest floor, a well place dagger in the middle of his back. That some natural predator hadn't picked him off yet was a miracle. But when I nudged him and called his name in mindspeak, he didn't respond, not even in the slightest. That was a bad sign.

Tobias, seriously, if you're joking, this isn't very funny. It's funny how human emotions work… I had never thought of myself as really good friends at Tobias, but he was still a friend and the prospect of losing him really… hurt.

_Stop…_ I felt the wind pick up and heard it toss the leaves in the trees around me. _You must not move him anymore. 'Lay is known for killing blows with daggers - He is still alive and that is a wonder.._

Who… who said that? The wolf instinct wasn't amused by the lack of a speaker, or by the heaviness of the air around us. And I wasn't amused by the… familiarity of the voice. She _sounded _like Sarah but there was something different about the way she "spoke". She seemed much more… ladylike. It makes Sarah seem like a she-male when I say it like that, which she isn't, she just isn't as much of a… girl as this voice seemed. 

Then the voice took form - and I _knew_ who she was.

You're… you're _Emily_! The figure gave a nod, then shook her head, tossing the strands of hair that hung loose from her ponytail over her face.

_Not as you would think, morpher,_ came the voice again. It was _her_ voice - her lips moved and I heard no sound except that in my head. _This is not a form Herdan can control._ She looked at me hard and narrowed the blue eyes I was used to seeing on someone else. _Believe me or not, but if you do not move, he will die and _you_ will be left to explain to _mi itelan_ why you let her _atala_ die. _There was something in her voice that irritated me - arrogance, maybe, or just plain superiority and it bugged me.

You're not touching him, Yeerk, I stated flatly, stepping over the prone Tobias. She arched a delicate eyebrow and rolled her eyes.

_Why is your kind so stubborn?_ She lifted her left hand and snapped her fingers - again, just the motion, no sound whatsoever. My body jerked roughly and suddenly the ground was further below me then it had been before and my paws dangled on air, not dirt.

What the-?! Put me the hell down!

_Where I come from, even _children_ know better then to disobey a Caster_, she told me sharply, then flicked her wrist gently, sending my into a convenient group of shrubs. I cursed her as I struggled to untangle my limbs from the branches and to get the wolf mind under control - being thrown around like a rag doll had sent it into a panic. 

Leave him alone! I stumbled from the bushes, pulling hard enough to free my back leg and lunge to protect Tobias - only I was too late. The apparition of Emily was gone, leaving only Tobias… Tobias in human form.

_Wake him - _gently,_ mind you, and have him return to his other form._ The voice came from nowhere again, but it was the same voice, with the same undertone of arrogance._ Then go and help _mi itelan_ - she will deny she needs, but that is because she has that stubbornness of a Northern range _reca_ herder. She _needs_ help and you do not need a Scanning Cast to tell you that._

What did you do to him?! I yelled at the nonexistent girl. If you've hurt him…! It didn't take a genius to figure out it was an idle threat - after all, I couldn't hurt her if I couldn't see her, but threatening her made me _feel_ better, so it helped a little.

_Quit babbling, you idiot. You are wasting precious time!_ I felt myself demorphing, even though I hadn't started it, and when I tried to stop it, nothing happened. I demorphed completely before I knew it was over and crouched there on the ground in shock, surrounded only my silence. Something hit the ground next to my hand, kicking up a small cloud of dirt. _Use that, it is now yours. _She sounded fainter and her voice itself seemed weaker. _As the highest Caster I know of in the area, I appoint you as guardian to my sister until she gets her brain parts together - tell her I have done this and I will hunt you down personally, morpher. She must not know, understood? It is for her own good._

"How in the hell do you expect _me_ to protect _her_ when _she_ can wipe the _floor_ with _my _butt?!" I countered. 

_You can morph - use it. Just do not…_ I don't know how I knew, but I knew she was gone. And, since my day hadn't been bad enough, she had cut off in the middle of a warning. A warning of what, God only knew…

I sat back on my heels and stared silently at the dagger. Guard Sarah… _protect_ her - from _what_? There was no way I could do anything for Sarah that she couldn't do for herself - she, after all, was the one teaching me to control my Casting, not the other way around.

_Another day, another hole in the ground…_ I scooped up the dagger but didn't take a moment to look at it - "precious time", as Emily had put it, was slipping me by.

"Tobias!" I grabbed his shoulder with my free hand and shook it. "Tobias! Come on, buddy, I think Sarah needs us both alive." 


	14. Interlude A Small Bit of Background

Random Interlude… again. Hehehe. J

So… yeah. Bored in class. Here's some… randomosityness.

Sarah 

Teslahani name: Seharae

Named for: Goddess of Death

Favorite-

Food: Pizza

Hobby: Writing

Weapon of choice: Glaive (_cleh secoh)_

Animorph stats

Battle: Panther

Bird: Merlin

Insect: Tarantula

Random: The original Sarah could morph everyone of her pets (she had four). Just before the new Sarah arrived, the foster parent-Controllers got rid of the pets. The new Sarah is completely terrified of morphing, but refuses to admit it.

Alay

Teslahani name: Verdae

Named for: God of Merry (read: God of Partying)

Favorite-

Food: Meatless ribs

Hobby: Writing

Weapon: Concealed daggers

Random: Alay's the only one of the group whose Intune with the _sehar nende_. She can sense when they move or when something has disturbed them – this does not, however, allow her to Cast. She was raised in Old New York City, before it was demolished and rebuilt. Much of her fighting style is based on covert tactics, hence why she likes the concealed daggers.

Sadie

Teslahani name: Laerten

Named for: God of Protection

Favorite-

Food: Chocolate

Hobby: Reading

Weapon: Casting

Random: Early on in the story, it was mentioned that Sadie and Alay were friends before they arrived at the Academy – they met on the way there and are not childhood friends. Very little is known about Sadie's past, but she is very good at avoiding the subject. 

Emily

Teslahani name: Emaien

Named For: God of Life

Favorite-

Food: Grilled Cheese

Hobby: Sleeping

Weapon: Casting, her sister

Random: Teshlahni twins are always called after the Twin God and Goddess, Emaien and Seharae. Their names, in turn, are derived from that (Emily and Sarah – they have twin cousins (younger) who are called Evin and Sandra.). Emily fits with her naming God's personality, being unexpectedly withdrawn, but consequently drawing people to her. This comes mainly from the anti-social "personality" involved in the _shalen seharai nende_ (water spirits – "sleeping eyes"), water also being the element of Emaien. 


	15. Ch 12 Choice Actions and Hard Decisions

The Difference

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Chapter 12 - Choice Actions and Hard Decisions

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(Sarah)

Fatigue is an awful thing, especially in a Weapon bout. The heaviness of the limbs, slowing down reaction time - a blow a first Level could avoid strikes the wrong place, leaving a pain that won't fade as fast as it should. Striking a blow that could take down a tenth level misses its mark and swipes only air. And when your opponent _knows_ you are fatigued, well, then you are really in the _recati_. In short, I was "screwed", as Marco had put it once.

"Oh, this _is_ a truly wonderous fight!" The flat side of her _clehdenah_ connected with my cheek, even as I tried to duck and block, and knocked me down. My vision swam as I tried to push myself up, out of the creek bed. The cold water flowed over my fingers as surely as if I had always been a part of the stream - water, my worst enemy. 

_You will die by the hand of water…_

Water. Ugh. My opposite Casting force, opposite of my _kithien, _but, unfortunately, my best hope for winning. I had no choice.

_Seharai nende vi shalen… veracha!_ I needed _shalen_, water, because it was the only one readily available for almost immediate use. _Haelen_ surrounded me and _lethlen _below me, but water was my only hope… I had not the strength to argue for the power of _haelen,_ nor the time to wait for _lethlen_ to pass its judegment. _Shalen,_ my only hope…

"Down again, little morpher?" A hard kick cause a loud cracking in my side and immense pain ripped through my entire body. My arms caved and I fell face first into the creek. It was the abrupt cold over any of the head wounds I had sustained that shocked me out of my battle mindset. My body was beginning to lose feeling where it had hurt the most - the leg that had irritated me since the since before hurt less now and the numbness of blood less took over the gashes, cuts, and bruises that covered my body. I could hardly feel a thing!

_Perfect_.

"You… do not learn, do you?" The water warmed around me, _seharai nende_ slowly awakening in their own powers. I felt some of my strength return, enough for me to push myself up on my hands. And now, this would end… "A Cross is not just a Weapon… I am also a Caster…" The _seharai nende_ began to run together, forming dense bands in the water around my hands. Tighter, and tighter they gathered, drawn by my will… a Caster's will is capable of anything and their emotions influence their will. Anger is a cold, hard emotion…

"Your power is _useless_, even you will admit so." A strong hand grabbed my braid and yanked my head back with such force I thought my neck would snap - truly, Alay was capable of snapping a person's neck and the Yeerk knew this, but my sudden death would be the end of her fun. Instead, she pressed the cold edge of the _clehdeanah_ against the exposed skin of my throat and chuckled darkly. "Give up, little girl, you cannot win."

"I was recently taught a saying, _shena_," I told her flatly. "I believe it was 'do not count your chickens before they hatch'." My hands were encased in ice, hard, unforgiving ice that was pliable only to me. To anyone else, it was as had as rock.

"And just _what_ is that supposed to-" I reared up like a panicked _haede_, dragging a stream of frozen water with me. By some grace of my Naming Goddess, I managed to twist myself around, despite my pain wreaked side, and slam one of my palms into Alay's side. She screamed and staggared back, taking her sword with her. I felt a sharp sting as the tip clipped my throat, then my chin, but I had regained the upper advantage. And with half of my _shalen_ bounty left, I would win surely.

"You have chosen a bad day to fight with me, _worm_," I told her gravely as I stood, drawing small amounts of strength from the _shalen_ to keep me balanced. "Harming _mi atala_ and attempting to kill Marco only made me angrier - you do not cross an angry Caster." She glared at me, one hand over the half frozen side of her middle and the other tightening and loosening on her sword. She knew losing her temper would mean losing the battle but she did not know the battle was long lost to her.

"You are going to pay for this, you… you… _freak_," she snapped. "I won't let you get away with injuring me! And you won't win!"

"It is too late for threats, Yeerk, is it already over." I raised the hand that the ice still covered and simply flung it at her. Free of me, the _seharai nende _began to release one another and it was a torrent of icy water when it slammed into Alay, causing her to drop her weapon.. I was right behind the deluge, tackling her to the ground with the last of a burst of adrenline. She struggled underneath me, but gravity and my weight were enough to hold her down, no strength needed.

"Get offa me, you useless human!!" Four Gods, I was exhausted. If the Yeerk had truly known how tired I was, it would have won, even with a half frozen human host. I was no match for a child, much less a Weapon who was a sublevel above me…

"I am not getting off until you are out of her head," I said sharply, using anger to mask the weariness in my voice. "If you do not leave, I will kill her with you. "Freedom at all costs"." She paused in her squirming and stared at my as if I had lost my mind.

"You… you wouldn't…" But she did not need me to tell her otherwise - Alay told her. Anger became fear and the Yeerk stared at me with wide eyed silence. "You… you're _insane_."

"I have my reasons," I answered. "Now, get the five hells out. Your time is over." Silence again. I knew it would not work but I could not wait three days for hunger to kill the Yeerk. Alay was capable of breaking our of every prison known to man or alien - nothing I was capable of doing would be able to hold her and there was very little chance the Animorphs could do anything either. It was now or I would be forced to kill my best friend.

Alay's body relaxed underneath me and her eyes drooped shut. I steeled myself for an attack - just because I was going to lose did not mean I was going to let it happen easily. But, to my utter and completely surprise, no attack came. Instead, something began to imerge from Alay's right ear, a thick, ugly brown thing that took its time leaving the head of _mi itala_. So captivated was I by the revolting sight I was not prepared when Alay's arm unexpectedly jerked out from under my knee, sending me toppling onto my injured side. Burning pain ripped through my body again, alighting every other injury it came in contact with. My vision blurred and all I could do was chew on my lip to keep from crying out - Weapons do not cry, Teslahni do not cry, and _I_ do not cry. Not from physical pain.

Through blurred vision, I watched Alay sit up and hold the squirming shape of her once capture. The one prison she could never escape from - her own mind- was now no longer a prison. With a snarl and a twitch of her hand, she crushed the little beast in her fingers and wiped the remains on the dirt beside her. Finally, an ally I could truly trust…

_Oh gods…_ I was not going to cry outloud, but I was hysterical inside. In all my life, almost nothing had ever hurt so much. One time - _one time_ there had been pain much like I felt, but it was been worst, coupled by betrayal and confusion. I had cried then. Cried until I could no longer cry and from then, did not cry again over mere body wounds.

"Sarah!!" Alay was at my side what seemed like forever and a lifetime later. She knelt on the ground and gently coaxed my rebelling body into a sitting position. "You stupid, stupid _shena. _I can't believer you'd let yourself get this beat up!"

"_Jaia, itala…_ you have no idea how much it hurts…" Thank the Four Gods, I had Alay back. Only Alay would see my physical injury as a reason to insult me. She was only being honest - I had been stupid. I had pushed myself too far and I would pay the price. But to have _mi itala_ back… it was worth it.

"If you die, I swear on every god worshipable by man, I _will_ leave your stupid corpse for the carrion eaters," she told me, even as she assessed the injuries she could readily see. "For crying outloud, _itala!_ How much blood can you lose?!"

"It is not blood loss…" I grimaced as she touched a thin gash that ran across the top of my forearm. "Blood loss cannot kill a Teslahn, you know that, _itala_." She rolled her eyes and tore a strip off of her shirt to wrap it around my arm.

"Goddess forbid your kind be anything _but_ stubborn and thick-skulled," she mused. "You are not allowed to die, understand?" I grinned weakly, feeling every ounce of the fatigue I had been pushing aside wash over me at once. 

"I… I promised Matt and Laur to bring you home… _hedashan na…_you and Sadie and Emily… I cannot die, _itala… ia hedashe_…" I told her. It felt like I was thinking through a fog… I just wanted to sleep or… die… anything to be rid of the pain. But the Caster Healers had taught us to never sleep if we had sustained even one head-type injury… and I knew I had at least three, possibly more that the fog was keeping from my memory. 

"Sarah!" Two more were there before I realized someone had called my name. Marco and… a boy I did not recognize. He looked familiar, like…

_His eyes_… His eyes reminded me of someone, someone I had had only met once. But I could not remember…

"_Mei -did- di -do- -to- -her-?!"_ Alay's head snapped up at the anger in the new boy's and confusion settled into my mind. He knew my language? Was he from home too…? No, it was not possible for him to be from home… then he was…

"T… Tobi'as…" Tobias, _mi atala_, in his human form. I had never seen his form. If I had been fully in my mind, I would have realized why Rachel was jealous. He was very nice to look at. Not as nice as some people, but very nice nonetheless.

"Tobias?" Alay looked down at me, then back at Tobias. "I'm glad you're alive. Both of you, actually. We haven't a lot of time. Epsil planned for his own demise - if we don't move, and fast, we'll be surrounded by Hork-Bajir with no escape. There's at least forty around this clearing and more on the main forest paths."

"Wait a minute - you're free?" Alay cocked her head to the side and arched an eyebrow. "What?" asked Marco. 

"What kind of stupid question is that?! Of course I'm free, you idiot!" Alay gave an exhasparated sigh and looked down at me. "You couldn't pick someone smart for a protégé?" I shook my head slowly and tried to think of an answer, but everything about me felt so heavy, even my brain. I just needed to sleep…

_Go on… it is all right… _sehar_…_ I could feel my eyes closing and struggled to keep them open. I was not supposed to fall asleep! There were many sicknesses that came with falling asleep with head injuries and the last thing I needed was to get sick.

_Sehar, deta, sehar…_The voice sounded so gentle, like my father's…

"Sarah… Sarah!" Someone was calling me…

_Sehar… Sehar, Sarah…_

"Sarah…!"


	16. Contest, 260103

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The Difference presents:

The Status of the Story

By ShadowMoonSedai

Well, ladies and gents, here's how it goes. Currently, the next chapters are being beta-tested, meaning I gave a floppy full of chapters (six or seven, I believe) to my beta-reader three weeks ago and she hasn't given it back. I will pester her tomorrow for that. 

Secondly, I'm introducing a sort of…. Contest. Essentially, I need a character profile. She's a Weapon, about the age of the Animorphs, a girl (obviously, since I was using the pronoun 'she'), and the Weapon of a Caster who is a Controller. I need a name for her and a basic profile including a physical description (ie, is she tall, short, really skinny, lithe, blonde, brunette, etc), an emotional description that's kinda of thorough, including a little bit of history behind somethings (like, if she's afraid of heights, is it because she fell from a tall tree as a child or something like that), some family history (not like her grandma was so-and-such, but what do her parents do, does she have siblings, is she living with an aunt/uncle/grandparent because her parents died in a freak accident, whatever), and she needs to have some kind of connection to the Animorphs. Now, I do **not** mean she needs to be Tobias long lost sister, but she could be a cousin to someone or someone's (~cough~Marco~cough~) old girlfriend, or a childhood friend that moved and came back or something like that. No long lost siblings. It's been done to death and should not be done again. 

As far as sending these to me – paste them into an email or attach them to an email (html, doc, or txt files only please) and send them too shadowmoonsedai@hotmail.com . In the subject line, put something like "Difference Character profile" or something to that extent. I get a lotta junk mail and don't really save any of it. I'll respond to you the instant I get it, to let you know it got through to me.

Thanks!!

Sincerely, 

SMS


	17. Chapter 13 Report

The Difference

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Chapter 13 - Report

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(Sarah)

The silence…

Again, the emptiness. It had not changed since I had last been in it - it was still endless, boundless, and so devoid of… everything. No bottom, falling, simply falling… and not caring.

_You return again… _The voice, a voice in the abyss. _Do you know where you are now? _

Who… who are you? I could sense no one, but I was not alone. How… how I had come to be in this place? I remembered no Gate…

_You travel between worlds, between the dimension you call home and the dimension where you fight._

_Who are you?!_

_I am no one you should concern yourself with. I offer only advice before you reach your destination - trust in those who surround you. You cannot truly call anyone "friend" unless you trust them._

What do you mean? The continuing loneliness dissolved before I could receive an answer, and now I stood in a familiar room, surrounded by strikingly familiar objects. A large wooden desk took up the space beneath the large picture window, truly the only window in the room. Papers and books covered the entire surface of the desk, leaving room only for a pot of Northern Black roses. Only one person I knew kept Black Roses - everyone else viewed them as a sign of ill omen.

"Well, I was wondering when you would arrive." I whirled, guilty that I had been caught in this place where few visited. Caster Hannah leaned nonchalantly against the back of a reading chair that sat in the back corner, a book in one hand and reading glasses in the other. "You know, when he told me you were safe, but needed elsewhere, I lost my temper and said some things I never should have said to him - given, it was not the first time I have gone off the handle at the Ellimist, and it probably will not be the last."

"The Ellimist?" Several pieces fell into place at once and it all made sense - the Gate, the formation of it, where it lead to, the memories the Animorphs had of me - all because of the Ellimist. This was not some random event - he had _planned_ for it.

Shock, and utter confusion, were the only things that kept me from exploding then and there. My sister, my friends, the hell we had gone through, because of some Ellimist… _thing?! _

"Caster… I do not understand." She shook her head, tossing the thick chestnut curls that lay about her neck.

"I cannot say I do either, but my only guess is that is has something to do with your lineage and the capabilities you four possess - Alay is the highest Weapon level for your age group, you close behind her, and your Casting gives you a distinct advantage, especially combined with your skills as a Weapon. As for Emily and Sadie… I need no tell you how much they are capable of. _You_ know, at least, Emily's full power." I rubbed the scars on my right arm and nodded slowly. I had been on the bad end of Emily's full power once, when her _seharai raisha _had awoken…it was also the last time I had ever cried because of physical pain.

"Caster Hannah, I am not sure what the Ellimist has told you, but it is much harder then it seems," I said slowly. "Shall I make a report?" She laid the book on the seat of the chair and the glasses on top of that, then nodded. "We arrived in the other world is two groups, possibly more - I was alone. I awoke in a barn, surrounded by several people, and non-people, all of who knew me. Would you like me to describe them?" Another nod. "There were four humans - Jake, Marco, Rachel, and Cassandra, also known as Cassie. They seemed to know me, but, obviously, I knew nothing of them. Caster, this will sound insane, but these people, this _world,_ is based almost completely on the forbidden books, the Animorphs. Truly, that is what these people call themselves, Animorphs. And the Yeerks… they are evil. They seek to conquer the Earth of the other world and, if all is true as I know it, they had already taken over much of the universe." A strange look flashed in her eyes, but she nodded, a sign for me to continue. "Also in the barn with me were Tob'ias, who I heard before I saw, and Aximili, an Andalite."

"Andalite?" she repeated, sounding only slightly surprised. "Andalite… and? What is he like?" I brushed a strand of hair over my ear and straightened my necklace.

"Nothing like we were taught. I was wary of him, based on what I had learned, but he was not like that. He is very kind natured, though a bit untrusting, and is a good… ally." I had almost slipped and said "friend". Weapons do not make friends on missions - we make allies only. Friends get in the way. "Also, Tobi'as is what the Andalites call a _nothlit_ - though he can morph into his human form, he spends much of his time in the form of a bird."

"Tobias… where have I heard that name before…?" She shrugged. "It would not be the same person, anyway. Okay, now, what have you learned so far about the Yeerks?"

"They only last three days between feedings - much shorter then here. Their highest level of power is the Council of Thirteen, just below that, the Vissers, then the Sub-Vissers. Visser Three, coincidentally, is also an Andalite - he lives up to the stereotype we were taught, but that is because of his Yeerk, not because of the host." She nodded.

"I have long suspected that the _true_ nature of the Andalites was something less then we had thought - but it is too late now, unfortunately." She was silent a moment, deep in thought. "And the others? You said you were separated." I tried not show my nervousness - how does one explain to one's superior that her two best Casters were on the opposite team?

"… Controllers, Caster. They ended up as Controllers." She drew in a short breath and the calmness in her grey-blue eyes was very suddenly anger.

"All of them?" she asked carefully. I nodded, then shook my head.

"Alay is now free - it took a lot of work and half of me thinks I am death-dreaming right now because of it. I was not in the best of health when the battle ended…" She arched an eyebrow.

"I was told by the Ellimist you have the morphing power, as do the rest. You were not Shattered, certainly not by Alay…" I chewed on my lip and finally looked away. I could not… Morphing was out of the question. To lose myself in the form of another creature… it would be injury to my highest Goddess. Caster Hannah said nothing, then sighed. "Sarah, I realize this is a trial for you, but you cannot continue to fight without at least using the morphing power to heal yourself. You do not have a Caster Healer with you, nor you do you have the time to wait for your injuries to heal naturally and I certainly believe Kithier would want to you to live to defeat your enemies." My head jerked up and I looked at my sister's teacher in wide-eyed shock. How had she known? "Do not look so surprised, daughter of Tyler. I know how Teslahani are prone to think - your father and I are the same age group, no?" I had forgotten that - my father and the Head Caster had grown up together in the Academy. They had also been partners, until some strange, unknown (unknown to me, at least) quarrel had arouse and they seperated, Caster Hannah to the Academy to be Head Caster and my father, ultimately, to Sehar in the Teslahani state of Hathen, to serve on the Senate. "Sarah, you must alter to fit the situation. If morphing will help you all return safely, then you must morph. Otherwise…" Casters have a way of dressing you down all the while making you feel like you have not done anything wrong, simply stupid. Caster Hannah, being the Head Caster, was particularly skilled in this - but I knew I was receiving a lecture for my stupidity and bowed my head to show I understood. I had been on the business end of several Caster speeches and knew exactly how to respond to them. Indeed, any student in the Academy, or any one not the Head of a Department, knew exactly how to respond to such things - simply bow your head and show the utmost respect and shame for what you have done, whether you did it or not.

There was a knock at the door and it opened before Caster Hannah said anything. My aunt, brown hair askew, blue eyes livid under her _nenshakigan_, barely paused to greet her Head of Department before rushing in and scooping me into a hug. 

"_Nades sheca, sheca fahed,_" she whispered harshly. "Thank the gods and goddesses you have arrived back safely." I returned the embrace, feeling guilty that I had not really returned to stay.

"_Jaia, mitala _Eryn," I answered quietly. "_Ia…"_

"She is not done with her mission yet," stated Hannah coolly. Eryn released me and whirled on her head of state with a look only a surrogate mother could manage - one of total betrayal, and yet, completely rage.

"Her _what?!_ You're letting her go back?! Have you lost your bloody mind, woman? For the love of Laerten, she's your gods damned-"

"_Caster Eryn_!" I cringed, hearing the heat in Hannah's voice. If anyone could get through her usually calm nature, it was _mi_ _katala_ Eryn. It took a great deal of patience to be Head Caster, and a very even temper, just as it took an even temper to handle the Casting elements needed to be Head Caster Healer - but just because Eryn could Cast Heal did not mean she was always even tempered. She was my father's sister, after all, and my family has long lineage of short fuses.

Eryn gaped like a fish for a moment, then her jaw snapped shut and she had the decency to look ashamed. I sensed there was something I was missing but… I was not about to get between them.

"Forgive me, Head Caster," she said quietly. "I overlooked my place. But-"

"There are _no_ buts, Caster Eryn," said Hannah in a voice of steel. "Sarah has made the decision to stay and the others would agree with her. She has chosen her first mission as a full Weapon and she will carry it out with the help of Weapon Alay and the Animorphs." I was so intent on _not_ getting in the middle of the argument, I almost missed what she had said.

"C-Caster Hannah?" She looked at me and smiled, the anger replaced by joy so quickly it made my head spin. 

"Yes, _Weapon_ Sarah, what I said was true. By choosing to stay, you have proven that you are capable of feeling more for others then you do for yourself - that is the true spirit of a Weapon. And, by not abandoning her Caster, despite the grave consequences, Weapon Alay has proved that she is also capable of such things. _You_ are Weapons now, in name and in heart." Suffice it to say, all I did was stand there, wide eyed and dazed. A full Weapon…

Caster Hannah left her spot in the corner and breezed past my aunt, who looked as surprised as I probably did, and picked up my right hand by the wrist. The Academy Cross stood out against my skin - training with Marco had given me quite a tan, something worthy of the Southern summer cattle herders. She pressed two of her fingers against the mark and I felt ice shoot through my skin.

"By the rank I have earned from the Academy Masters and that has been gifted to me by the Council of Eleven, I name Weapon Sarah, first Weapon of the last of the Pre-invasion generation." Ice turned to fire and a shooting pain ripped through my body. I stood and waited it out, not crying, keeping myself calm against it - after the hell Alay had put me through, it was nothing. A Weapon, a _full_ Weapon - Alay was going to be ecstatic.


	18. Chapter 14 One More

The Difference

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Chapter 14 - One More

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(Marco)

How in the world does someone just _vanish_?! Alay paused and shrugged her shoulder, then tossed her hair over her shoulder and dropped from the tree branch to the ground.

I'll tell you, said Tobias. Ellimist. Alay raised an eyebrow as Tobias landed the branch she had descended from.

_Yes, but why? If she's s'posed to free us, the least he can do is wait until we're **all** free,_ she commented. I thought a moment on this, then stopped.

Wait… how do you know about the Ellimist? She tilted her head back to look at me and made a face.

_Oh, for the sake of the Goddess, I can't **believe** she didn't tell you. I'm gonna throttle her… when we find her. And make **her**_ _explain, so you'll have to wait until then._

I don't like this, said Tobias, changing the tone of the subject. Sure, the Ellimist is known for random occurrences, but he doesn't usually just _kidnap_ people. At least, not that we know of… Alay stuck her sword in the ground and with a loud tearing sound, ripped the bottom of her shirt off. She tilted her head back and gathered her hair into a ponytail, then tied it up with the strip that she had removed. 

_Just keep an eye for any stray Hork-Bajir. Those stupid… ugh. These ones here are nothing like the ones back home. _She grabbed her sword again and balanced the blade across her shoulders. _Any sign of her?_

Notta thing, I answered. Not even a salad shooter. Are you sure the Yeerk set up an ambush?

_Yeah, I'm sure. But Epsil wasn't the most liked Yeerk around - ten to one Visser Three called off the ambush unit when Epsil bought the farm. Or even before that - it **would** be like the Andalite-scum._

Hey, interjected Tobias sternly. Visser Three is an Andalite Controller. I have yet to meet another Andalite like _him_.

_Look, bird, the most I have to go on is what I was taught back home. Now, maybe there's a different kind of Andalite here, but Visser Three is **exactly** like the stereotypical Andalite back home._ I swooped down and landed on the top of a tree - high enough to keep an eye on things, low enough that I could keep an eye on Alay. I had only officially known her for an hour and I still wasn't sure if I liked her - she reminded me a lot of Rachel, in her sarcastic, arrogant attitude, but at the same time, it was worse because I _knew_ Alay would kick my ass, whereas with Rachel, I simply knew she could. 

__

Mei…?! The sword on Alay's back was suddenly out and ready to fight. She held it out with one hand while the other rested on the short sword strapped to her back - she had taken that from Sarah's duffel bag, as well as the dagger Sarah had been keeping. _Look alive, boys, the _nendei_ are stirring…_

What do you mean by that? She didn't answer, instead, drew the second sword and stood, watching the entire clearing for any sign of movement. The _nendei..._ the elemental things Sarah had told me about. Alay could see them?

There! Across from you, Alay! Alay leveled her longer sword at the spot directly in front of her, but kept the arm with the short sword loose. Why? Because she was expecting - no, _knew_- that whatever was disturbing the _nendei_ wasn't in front of her.

Sarah emerged slowly from the bushes to Alay's left and stood there, waiting, until Alay looked over at her. The brunette grinned at the partially-blonde and Alay rolled her eyes.

"Curse you and your shadowy little sneaking-up-on-people thing," she said, making a face. Sarah giggled and brushed a strand of bang out of her face. She tilted her head back to smile up at me and I stopped. Not because of her smile, but because her eyes… they were…

Tobias, something's wrong. That's…

I know, Marco, but Alay's either ignoring me or can't hear me. I'm screaming at her right now and she _isn't_ listening. Tobias shifted on the branch, obviously debating whether he should physically intervene, but Sarah solved that.

"'Lay, can you help me a moment? I am stuck on a bush." She tugged at her leg, showing the fabric of her pants was caught on a thin branch. Alay arched an eyebrow, but shrugged and approached Sarah, sheathing the short sword as she did. She took Sarah's right hand, the hand marked with the Cross, with her own right hand, marked with something similar but not exactly like Sarah's. Instead of two crossing lines, she had one line bisecting a circle, the mark of Weapon.

"You're such an airhead, _itala_, if a little bush can sto…" Alay trailed off, her eyes trained on Sarah's wrist. With an osprey's eyes, trained to see fish from high distances, I could see…

Marco, the mark, the cross… it's… changed. I agreed, silently, as Alay stared at the new score on Sarah's arm. The two lines were gone, replace by a strange symbol that seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it…

"You… you are…" Sarah gave a small nod and the blue in her eyes intensified. Now I was sure it wasn't Sarah, but it was too late. She, it, had Alay right where it wanted her.

"And you are, as well." Alay gasped and grabbed her arm with a cry. Sarah's eyes fluttered and without a sound, she dropped, releasing her grip on Alay.

That's it, I'm not staying up here anymore. I launched myself off the tree and fluttered to the ground. Alay stayed where she was, shocked or stunned or unconscious on her feet - _something_. Frankly, I could have cared less what was wrong with Alay, it was Sarah I was worried about. 

Be careful. Alay, are you all right? She gave herself a shake, the shivered.

"Y-yeah," she muttered. "I will be, at least." She gave Sarah a gentle kick as I landed and demorphed, causing her to groan and stir.

"_Verdenae…_" she whined. "_Jaia… gehne…_" Alay snorted.

"Not this time, _itala_. You're stuck with me now, like it or not." Sarah pushed herself up on her arms and crawled to her feet. I was at her side in enough time to keep her from falling as she stumbled again. She fell against me and instead of standing back up, stayed against me, half conscious.

"_Sehar… vercha…_" she murmured. Okay, was I wrong to like this position we were in? No. I'm a guy who has a crush on a girl, who was passed, or mostly passed out, almost on top of me, completely vulnerable, and as always, completely her hot-self. But Alay placed one hand on her hip and arched an eyebrow even as I looked down to hide the flaming blush on my face - I would not show weakness in the face of the psycho, I would _not_ show weakness in the face of the psycho…

"Taking her home would be a bad idea," stated Alay, thankfully directing her gaze to Tobias. "Would you friend Cassie be averse to her staying in the barn? She needs sleep and bad, but having to explain it to her… parents would be a difficult thing."

I don't think Cassie will have a problem with it, answered Tobias. But you're definitely gonna explain yourself. How do you know about… Sarah's parents, for one thing? And Cassie's barn, for another?

"_Jaia, atala mi itala_, the better question is how do you know Sarah?" The shut Tobias up and Alay was free to turn her attention back to me. "And since you seem happy enough in that position, _you_ can carry her." I wanted to make a comment, but, in lieu of the situation, I held my tongue and simply glowered. Hey, at least I wasn't blushing.

Marco, stay with Alay. I'll go ahead and talk to Cassie. I nodded to Tobias, who took off to warn Cassie. Lucky bird - I had to stay behind and walk with the psycho…


	19. Chapter 1516 Explanations, Secrets and ...

The Difference

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Chapter 15 - Explanations, Secrets, and…

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(Sarah)

A gentle dissonance of voices awaited me as I drifted out of a dreamless sleep. My mind was foggy, halfway distinguishing the noises, halfway figuring out the prickly substance irritating my back.

"… She used up her Casting strength - not only that, she got help from Water Elementals, which is her opposite element. That's the first part…"

Alay… free. Everything rushed back to slam into my addled mind, forcing me to focus wholly on the conversation and forget the itching on my back. Alay was free, Caster Hannah knew where we were, the Ellimist was in on the whole thing, and I was… no, Alay and I both were…

"But you said she's a full Weapon now. Does that mean she can't Cast anymore?" I lifted my right arm from my side and gave the marking a long look - the Elemental Crest, the sign of a full rank. A dizzying twist of vines, waves of water, tendrils of fire, and blue streaks that represented the element of Air. My commitment to my Caster…

"No, she can Cast. A full Weapon rank means she's now got some of the things it would take us years to learn - for one thing, she's unaffected by low to middle level Casts. She's also supposed to have a closer bond to her Caster but, unfortunately, her Caster wasn't part of Caster Hannah's ceremony." My hand fell across my chest as a thin ache tore into my heart. My Caster… Alay's Caster… both of them were still…

Morning, sunshine. Tobias' thought-speak was quiet, for me only. Sleep well?

_Very well,_ I answered. _But hay is a very irritating thing. Where am I?_

Cassie's barn again. Alay's explaining the situation to Cassie and Ax, and to me and Marco as well - there's a lot you haven't told us. I winced as I sat up, both at the stiffness of my muscles and the undertone of questioning in Tobias' voice. 

_Ia… I apologize, Tobi'as_. 

For what? he returned with. It's not like I asked and you lied. You're allowed secrets, like the rest of us. I looked over at him in the rafters and gave him a weak smile. No one but me knows you're awake, _itala_, so you can roll over and go back to sleep.

_Veraha_, _but I think to leave Alay to explain everything would not be a good idea. She does not know everything about the situation that I know._

Like what? he asked as I slowly and carefully stood. My legs were still weak, but stable enough (or so I thought) to support me if I dropped from the hayloft to the ground. But when my feet hit dirt, my knees collapsed and I fell over - sideways, remarkably enough- directly into Marco's lap - Marco, who had been sitting on a convenient bale of hay beneath the edge of the loft. He caught my waist to stop me from falling as I grabbed his shoulders for the same reason and for a split moment, I just sat there, in his lap, his hands on my waist and mine around his neck. It was… an interesting position.

That was the first time I seriously broke the number one rule of Weapons: When on a mission, allies are allies. _They are nothing more then allies_. I had partially broken this is developing a friendships with Ax, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco - but friends and allies are close things to began with. But anything more then friends...

"Are you okay?" asked Marco gently. I felt a blush rush to my cheeks and prayed that no one noticed it when I nodded silently. He gave me a half smile. "Then can you stand? You're cutting off circulation to my legs." I nodded again - there was a pause, in which I let myself enjoy the smile and nothing else - _then_ I realized he actually wanted to me get off of his legs and that I really _was_ cutting off the circulation.

"_Ia Veranda!_" I stood up quickly, feeling the blush deepen, this time from stark embarrassment. Alay only shook her head, either choosing to ignore me or simply holding in the mocking I knew I would get. I rarely acted like… a _girl_ around the opposite sex. Usually,_ usually_, I was able to simply remain myself - to a Teslahan, gender was nothing to discriminate by, _jaia_, nor was sexual orientation on top of that. But lately…

"Did you sleep well?" asked Cassie. 

"_J-jai_," I replied, attempting to gather myself. I was not used to falling over, literally and figuratively. Until I figured out why Marco had such an effect on me, then… I was not sure what I was going to do until then, but in the entire time that I had been in the Animorphs world, that had _never_ happened to me - and Marco and I had fallen into much more compromising positions in training.

"Good to see you haven't changed," chuckled Alay, patting me on the shoulder. "You're still incredibly out of your mind." I made a face at her, but could honestly think of no come back worth saying. "At least now you can help fill in these people whom you've left in the dark."

"_Vercha, _forgive me," I said to the others. "I have a tendency to assume that, because I know things, others know them as well." Alay snorted and shook her head.

"It's not a _tendency_, _itala_, it's a daily happenstance. You do it all the time!"

"I do not!" I countered. "I do not assume all of the time!"

"Like hell you don't!!"

"I do _not_!"

"You do, and don't argue with me, because you know I'll win." The way she said it, with an arrogant tone only Alay could perform, and a simple aura of superiority around her, was enough to make me give up then and there and just roll my eyes at her - sometimes, you have to quit while you are ahead. And sometimes, when it's Alay, you just have to quit.

"That is regardless," I stated firmly. "There is much that needs to be talked about. To begin with, the Ellimist, I am told, is the cause of this."

We had guessed that, _itala_, said Tobias. Though we were a little confused onto the 'why' behind it. I shrugged.

"I do not know either - _but_ he has told Caster Hannah that we are safe. _I_ have told Caster Hannah that her two favorite students are Controllers. She was not amused." Alay snorted.

"I wish I could have seen that," she answered. "Given, if wouldn't be the first time I've see Caster Hannah pissed." I grinned, remembering all of the times we, as partners in crime, had been on the receiving end of Caster Hannah's anger - Alay and I had been the best Weapon Trainees, but also, the most troublesome.

"Alay, compared to the lecture Head Caster Healer Eryn received, you and I have been lucky." She arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. "Caster Hannah also said something that might interest everyone - apparently, us four have been given the morphing power."

"All?" asked Alay and Marco simultaneously. I nodded, even as Ax continued with,

That cannot be. If they had the morphing power, surely the Yeerks would have morphed!

"Not necessarily," spoke up Cassie. "If the Yeerk hadn't known and Alay herself hadn't known then… if you don't know you can do something, why even try? The Yeerk certainly would have looked stupid trying to morph." I nodded, agreeing completely with Cassie, and heard Alay chuckle.

"Epsil would have _loved_ to have the morphing power," she said darkly. "Greedy bastard that he was. Nothing was ever enough for him…" She shook her head. "Never mind. _He's_ dead and I'm not and I have a Mission, damn it."

"That's the psycho spirit!" said Marco with mock enthusiasm. Alay glared at him and opened her mouth to retort, when suddenly Cassie gasped.

What is it, Cassie? asked Tobias. She tilted her head back to look at him.

"We start school on Monday," she answered. "Summer break's over. Why that came as a sudden revelation is beyond me, but I somehow feel like… it's important." Marco stifled a groan of disappointment.

"Oh, that _sucks_," he stated. "I'd much rather have another Summer Break, especially after the way this one's been going." I looked up at Tobias with a look of confusion.

"I do not know what "school" is," I answered. "Or "sucks". Is that like hokey?"

"Hokey"? repeated Tobias. Where did you learn _that_? Marco looked slightly sheepish, but said nothing, so I said nothing to Tobias. Oh, I get it. Marco's been teaching you bad English. Way to go, Marco.

"It's not like it was intentional!" returned Marco. "She's already got most of English under her belt - it's hard to remember she has the total combined English skills of a fifth grader." Alay came up and poked me in the forehead before smacking Marco upside the head.

"Her translator chip got fired, you moron," she told him. "She knows English, she just can't speak it."

"Hey! I remembered why it was important!" said Cassie, interrupting the war (again) before it began. "Sarah has to go to school too. And since she has no idea what that is, we have a problem."

"Slightly," grimaced Marco. I was confused again. How was it a problem? Just what in the five hells was this "school" thing, anyway?

"For crying out loud," mused Alay. "It's not a hard concept. Sarah, school's like the Academy, only, since they don't have Weapons and Casters here, I'm assuming your school focuses more on academic pursuits." She looked to Cassie, who nodded. "How do your days of the week work here, if this "Monday" is coming up?" I knew that one, though I still did not understand it.

"They have seven day weeks, _itala_," I answered. "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - then it starts all over again."

Wow, I'm surprised you remembered that, commented Tobias. I made a face up at him.

"You have a confusing week and year," I told him, for the fourth time. "It's not simple, like the Teslahani." Alay snorted.

"If that's simple, then I'm a Taxxon," she said coolly. "Regardless, what day of the week is it now?"

"Thursday," answered Cassie. "Which leaves us less then four days until school."

"Four days is plenty of time," said Alay, shrugging. "Just because Sarah _acts_ like an idiot doesn't mean she really is one… all of the time, anyway." I rolled my eyes.

"_Itala_, I think I liked it better when _you_ weren't the one talking."

****

Chapter 16 - … and Plotting

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(Alay)

Sarah's awake. I nodded to Tobias, who was kind enough to state the obvious. When Sarah woke up, she was as loud as a cattle stampede and about half as graceful.

My name is Alay. I have a last name, but it's one the Teslahani gave me, so it's not really my last name. Orphans don't usually have last names, but Teslahani don't suffer a child to not have a family, so I have one now, as strange as it may seem. 

I grew up in the remnants of New York City, making a life and learning tricks and fighting amongst the broken, twisted buildings. I can break out of every prison known to man - spend two years dodging police and it's not hard to figure out. But I couldn't escape when Visser One ordered my home destroyed - I was sent to the Academy, to put my skills to a good use. Well, most of them. There isn't much call for thievery in the Academy… unless, of course, it's to cause minor trouble for the many, many irritating, egotistical students in said Academy. And boy, are there a lot of them.

It was on the way to the Academy from my home that I met Sadie. She was very quiet, very reserved, the exact person I had always imagined a Caster would be. Then, of course, when I reached the Academy, I was put in first year classes with a set of twins already known for causing problems - Sarah and Emily. Sarah was the only Cross in the class, but it was obvious she was less focused on Casting and more on fighting. That's why we became training partners - because, given half a chance, she _can_ focus and since whatever she can do, I can do better, it makes me work hard on focusing myself. There's also the simple fact that her style of fighting is the exact opposite to mine - long handled halberds and glaives to close combat knives and short swords. It makes practice interesting.

_Thank you, Tobias. Is she planning on coming down anytime soon?  
_Hopefully - yup, there she goes. Sarah slid off the edge of the hayloft and landed on the ground in the worst possible position - straight legged, no where for the shock of the sudden stop to go. Her knees crumbled and she toppled over - directly into Marco's lap. He grabbed her faster then I had assumed he would, or could, and for a moment, they just sat there, while I debated laughing at them - I had already laughed at Marco, and given him the business as well, for his little crush on Sarah. Weapons don't "crush" while they're on Missions, therefore, his feelings were completely boundless.

At least, I had _thought_ they were.

_Tobias, tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing… _A thin blush had spread to Sarah's cheeks and her skin had paled slightly. Okay, so the feeling _were_ reciprocated - they weren't _supposed_ to be, but they were. _Damn it…_

How is that bad? asked Tobias, as Marco asked Sarah if she was okay. Isn't it good if she likes Marco back?

_Because he's a _distraction, _and a big one at that,_ I replied as Sarah jumped up, apologizing profusely for cutting off the circulation to Marco's legs. _Not only that, he's an ally and her student, which makes it all the more worse. It's supposed to only be a plutonic relationship…_

And yet, you don't sound too against the idea. Damn thought speak, damn damn damn it. Outloud, I could control the tone of my voice, but when it what I was thinking, it was impossible. He knew I was thinking about this…

_After today, I'm thinking she _needs_ a distraction,_ I told him thoughtfully. _She's throwing herself into this too much and thinking too little about the consequences of her actions. She needs more time to just… not be on a Mission. So, then, that means a little constructive plotting in order, _atala mi itala_._

Why do I have the feeling you plan to involve me in this?

_Because I do, mostly because you're a good judge of character - and you've been watching Sarah and Marco interact in training, not to mention you know Marco better then I do AND I know you're just dying to help Sarah get her sanity back on track._

.… Damn you. I grinned.

_Don' t worry, this will be fun._

****

End Book I, The Difference

__

There you go. The entire first book of The Difference. I'll have the beginning of the second book up soon, but it will be its own thing so watch out for it! Also, check out It's the official site and stuff for The Difference. ^_^ Enjoy! 


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